News rugby was waiting for places light at the end of the tunnel

The go-ahead given to professional team sports to return to training from this week has provided a light at the end of what has at times seemed a long tunnel for South Africa’s top level rugby players and coaches.

SA Rugby on Saturday welcomed Sports Minister Nathi Mthethwa’s announcement. While there is no clarity at this point when matches might be able to resume, that is not a major concern as right now the players wouldn’t be ready to return to the field for competitive matches even if it was allowed.

There seems to be consensus among coaches that it would take a minimum of six weeks for professional teams to be ready to play again, starting with an initial three week block, at minimum, for conditioning. Thereafter the players would have to get their bodies ready for contact.

The guidelines around contact training are something that SA Rugby bosses will be seeking clarity on this week.

NEWS RUGBY WAS WAITING FOR

“This is the news sport has been waiting to hear as it allows us to begin to ramp up preparations for an eventual return-to-play,” said Jurie Roux, SA Rugby CEO.

“We submitted a comprehensive, staged return-to-play protocols document to the department five weeks ago and we are ready to begin medical screening of players immediately. We will seek further clarity from the department on the application of the guidelines as they apply to contact training.

“But this is an opportunity for our players to enhance their lockdown training regimes by increasing their fitness work for an eventual return to play,” he added.

What it means is that the players and coaches can return to work, and start busying themselves with what they are employed to do - doing the preparation necessary to become a winning rugby team.

TIME OFF BEING USED TO RE-SET THE SPORT

Just what there will be to win will become clearer later, but the unions and franchises are working towards an August restart. It seems the coronavirus driven suspension of play, which is now into double figures in terms of weeks it has been in effect, is being used productively by rugby administrators globally, with a global season now a lot closer than it was, and the sport apparently busy doing the resetting that is necessary in order for it to rejuvenate interest.

Among mooted changes going forward are the rescheduling of the Rugby Championship to coincide with the Six Nations, that will henceforth be played in March and April. There is the possibility apparently that we could see the Currie Cup, or a competition like it, played over the summer holiday months of November through to January in order to prepare players for Rugby Championship action.

However, that is all in the future, and is a long time away in a world that has become more fluid because of COVID-19.

BULLS REVIVAL WOULD ADD TO MARKETABILITY OF DOMESTIC RUGBY

In the short team it seems that South Africans can look forward to a regional/domestic competition starting in August, probably played behind closed doors, and the good news is that most of the top unions have retained enough talent to make it a marketable and highly watchable event.

Andre Esterhuizen, Wilco Louw and Dillyn Leyds are Springboks who had already committed to leaving before the onset of the global pandemic, but with the Golden Lions likely to hold Malcolm Marx to his contract and World Rugby Player of the Year Pieter-Steph du Toit staying on with Stormers after securing a deal with sponsor company DHL to be their ambassador, there was minimal damage done to the strength of local franchises during the 21-day get out window.

Indeed, if you consider that Duane Vermeulen will be in Bulls clothing the next time the Pretoria team takes the field, and that Arno Botha, Marcel van der Merwe and Gio Aplon will be joining him after returning from overseas clubs, it could almost be argued that local rugby will resume stronger than it was.

The reintroduction to local rugby of the experience and rugby brain of Bulls director of rugby Jake White has to be seen as a massive positive, and gathering from the signings he has made and is rumoured that he still intends to make, the Bulls could be on their way under his coaching to become the strong team South African rugby needs them to be.

COASTAL TEAMS LOOK STABLE

Western Province have offset the loss of Leyds by securing the signature of the Bulls’ Bok fullback Warrick Gelant, while the exciting young Kade Wolhuter has been lured back from France to stake a claim for the spot left by the departure for Japan of back-up flyhalf Jean-Luc du Plessis. The arrival in the Cape of Gelant will mean that the precociously talented Damian Willemse will continue as first choice flyhalf. The Stormers are also finalising a passage for Springbok World Cup winner Vincent Koch to return from Saracens to play for them in the build-up to next year’s scheduled visit by the British and Irish Lions.

The Sharks lost only Tyler Paul in the 21-day window and their biggest challenge going forward will be to find a replacement for the physically dominant Esterhuizen, who was committed to a move to England before Coronavirus arrived and has now played his last game for the Sharks.

What the Sharks have going for them is the large group of talented youngsters that has done so well for the Durban union at age-group level over the last few seasons and who coach Sean Everitt will be looking to bleed into the first team squad as time goes along.