South African rugby is exploring the possibility of terminating their alliance with New Zealand and Australiabecause the relationship with their Sanzar partners is so strained.
The executive council of the SA Rugby Union this week expressed the view that alternatives to the Tri-Nations and Super rugby tournaments needed to be explored from 2015 when a broadcast deal with the rugby unions of New Zealand and Australia expires.
Liam del Carme, Sunday Times
“The council gave the instruction that we should look at other possibilities beyond 2015,” said chairman of the board Dr Jan Marais.
“We can’t do anything about the current agreement because we are locked in until the contract expires. However, there is the strong feeling that we should at least look at possibilities we can explore at the conclusion of our current broadcasting deal.”
Saru’s relationship with New Zealand and Australia has deteriorated to such an extent during this year’s Tri-Nations tournament that local rugby bosses insisted SA’s standing as the major revenue generator in Sanzar be re-emphasised.
The relationship has reached an all-time low following:
• the Springboks’ persistent complaints about the referees in the away leg of the Tri-Nations;
• the resultant charge of misconduct against Springbok coach Peter de Villiers;
• disciplinary hearings that seemed to go against SA players and
• Sanzar’s letter seeking clarification on Saru president Oregan Hoskins’s supposed “declaration of war” comments.
Asked whether SA would be predisposed to continuing their alliance after 2015 in the current climate of disaffection, Marais said: “We won’t automatically opt for a renewal of the current deal. I think by then anyway we’ll have new people running the game but given the present climate we have at least decided to start looking at options.”
Marais indicated Saru was pursuing “nothing concrete” by way of alternatives to the Tri-Nations and Super rugby competitions at the moment.
As rocky as the relationship may be, strain in the Sanzar alliance is not uncommon.
Hoskins intimated as much when he suggested news of Sanzar’s imminent demise was greatly exaggerated.
“Vodacom Tri-Nations rugby is a robust game and we have robust conversations in the boardroom and occasionally knock each other down and have to pick each other up, dust ourselves off and get on with it. But it has been like that since day one,” said Hoskins.
“The bottom line is that this is the toughest rugby competition in the world and we’re fully part of it with our neighbours.
“In that spirit, we’ll be having discussions with New Zealand and Australia when they’re over here and after that we’ll get on with ensuring we continue to produce the best rugby tournaments in the world,” he said.
August 15th, 2010 at 2:42 am
There is obviously more to this than Patti’s intructions to the Irish refs.
August 15th, 2010 at 2:50 am
It’s actually a non-story –
SA is contractually bound
up to 2015.
Then again if that contract
is as leaky as the ones players
have with franchises, we may see
some real teath and action.
But I somehow doubt that.
This is just some hot air.
August 15th, 2010 at 6:41 am
And with that… RSA rugby will fade away into obscurity… welcome to mediocrity…
RSA rugby was the last bastion of 1st world competitiveness…
“This is just some hot air.”
Remember the last time these chumps spouted the same?
They ended up handing Aus their own national league funded by SANZAR money!
August 15th, 2010 at 9:55 pm
Reply to bryce_in_oz @ 6:41 am: Agree entirely with your comment “welcome to mediocrity” because that is what will result if this executive council gets the Boks into some new alliance involving teams at #4 and 5 in the world instead of #’s 1 and 2. Not sure what the coverage is in Oz but in NZ it is in the headlines on Radio Sport and already some opponents here are suggesting that SA should be allowed to slip off into the sunset of their own timezone competition. Like it or not we have a reputation of being dirty players (thanks Bakkies and co.) and playing at times boring rugby (kick and chase crap from last year).
This SARU Executive Council is meant to be in the business of running SA Rugby and in business you don’t pull out of a market because the opposition doesn’t bow down to you at the negotaiting table. They should be using the top 2″ and find ways of negotiating around the issues they don’t like. But what do we get? Bleating about conspiracy theories and refs that don’t like us.
August 15th, 2010 at 9:57 pm
Or is this just a way of working up mass hysteria before Saturday’s game at Soccer City?
August 15th, 2010 at 10:02 pm
Reply to out wide @ 9:55 pm:
I think you should stop using the terms “us” and “we” when you refer to South Africa or South Africans.
Your opinions are consistently aligned with “them”.
August 15th, 2010 at 10:07 pm
Reply to fyndraai @ 10:02 pm: No, I am just living in neutral country away from the barrage of “the everybody hates us phsychosis”. Doesn’t mean that by getting a more balanced view of the world from outside the Laager I have to drop my support of the Boks.
August 15th, 2010 at 10:15 pm
We need to stick with the big boys otherwise the Boks will go one way.
http://fromthebottomoftheruck.blogspot.com/
August 15th, 2010 at 10:44 pm
Reply to out wide @ 10:07 pm:
And that’s exactly the kind
of inputs and perspectives
we need on RuggaWorld.
Being loyal does not constitute
that you may not criticise.
BTW that book is great – halfway
now.
August 15th, 2010 at 10:46 pm
Reply to out wide @ 10:07 pm:
New Zealand, neutral country. Very funny.
You do not even notice how you constantly promote the kiwi view point. When SA teams win, the rugby is boring crap or there must have been a forward pass – right?
You are not outside the laager, just inside a new one.
August 15th, 2010 at 11:00 pm
Reply to fyndraai @ 10:46 pm:
fyndraai very funny! I meant neutral from the perspective of viewing how the world views SA. From inside SA the world is sometimes viewed as a hostile place full of nasties conspiring to bring us down. From outside SA you realise that most of the time things said and done in SA fly very much under the global radar.
And if you are not pulling my chain about the new NZ laager you have not visited Oz or NZ. No room for laagers, mate they have a thing called the “tall poppy syndrome” here and anyone who thinks they above criticism and the like are cut down.
August 15th, 2010 at 11:14 pm
Reply to fyndraai @ 10:46 pm:
Hehehe. Well, I also thought
we were playing crap rugby
when we won the TN in 2009.
Effective, yes.
Attractive, no.
The really great teams have
a way of doing both – like
the Boks under Teichmann and
Mallett.
August 15th, 2010 at 11:24 pm
Reply to out wide @ 11:00 pm:
Rugby wise.
I get kiwi commentators for a majority of games and in my opinion they are exactly as narrow minded as South Africa’s.
Inside their own rugby laager.
August 15th, 2010 at 11:31 pm
Reply to Boertjie @ 11:14 pm:
May I suggest sports then where you win based on attractive: Ice dancing, figure skating or synchronized swimming.
August 15th, 2010 at 11:35 pm
Reply to fyndraai @ 11:31 pm:
August 16th, 2010 at 6:10 am
Reply to Boertjie @ 11:14 pm:
More a point of not needing to play attractive rugby… I enjoy any team smashing the other apart at the breakdown as much as a good 50m try…
The thing that did have most thinking during 2009… was whether the ‘brains trust’ had a plan B for when the others readjusted and whether they had formulated an interchangeable 30 ‘odd’ man squad to cope with the inevitable injuries of over-played rugby players… 2010 answered all the above…
August 16th, 2010 at 6:16 am
Reply to out wide @ 9:55 pm:
Yep it seems to have become common acceptance to go on a EOYT and regularly lose to a France and Ireland (even mid-weekers), scrape a win over a Wales and then beat a team ranked lower than Fiji…
Repeat this each year and the Boks will inevitable rank consistently mid-table… not acceptable!
Argentina in the 3N in our place and watch how quickly they take it up another notch…