Saracens boss Edward Griffiths says the South African Rugby Union (SARU) should consider playing its international rugby in the Northern Hemisphere in future.
Griffiths spoke to Die Burger newspaper at Thursday’s announcement that Saracens will play French club Biarritz in a Heineken Cup match at the Cape Town Stadium on 14 January next year.
“This match paves the way for a relationship between South African rugby and the Heineken Cup.
“The Heineken Cup has the potential to become the strongest provincial competition in the world.
“It will be interesting to see if certain Suuth African players, provinces, coaches and even fans feel it could provide more commercial opportunities and also that the travel burden of south to north will be easier than west to east.”
The rugby schedule will be even more cramped next season. The Super Rugby competition will only end in early August – with a breather for Test matches in June – and there’s also the extended Rugby Championship series (extension of the Tri-Nations with Argentina included) which starts in August.
Only time will tell whether player burnout due to too much rugby, and especially the long travel distances to Australasia, become too much to bear for players. A shift to the Northern Hemisphere in future might not be the worst possibility for SARU to again ponder over.
Former Springbok captain Morné du Plessis says the answer to player burnout could be to start playing a global rugby season.
“Rugby has been toying for long over the issue of player welfare due to too much rugby.
“The answer is to start playing in the same season worldwide,” said Du Plessis.
elcamino
ROOILEEU
Tina
logan
Thomas_Bulls
Deon
garyj1-Bulls
Aldo
Amethyst
Methos The French Stormer
KingPaul
JT_BOKBEFOK!
trevormayhew
RUGGA_MIND
Pokkel
Quinn25
Marcel
namboer
moose
Jacques(Bunny)Somtimes I sits and thinks and sometimes I just sits
Vernonimous
Pom in Joburg
Watte
niekie
Dante
Panther
Vetgesmeerde Blits
bryce_in_oz
Kozac
Blokkies
Number12_Lions
Brutus2
Lehe6
Estian Nortier
DavidS
johanleroux13
Morné
Tafelberg
pietstreak
Ollie
Koos
November 11th, 2011 at 10:09 am
5 South African teams staying in Europe for two months to partake in the HC… I think not!
Current European/Uk teams that pay a tuppence to fly in and out on game day… to increase their travel expenditure by over 1000% to travel South for long durations… I think not!
Any competition in the world without New Zealand and Australia becoming the strongest provincial competition in the world… I think not!
November 11th, 2011 at 10:11 am
Reply to bryce_in_oz @ 10:09 am:
I think he is punting a global season, and for SH teams to fall in line with NH current season and make that the global season and for SA (biggest SH playing nation and commercially strongest) to drive this.
November 11th, 2011 at 2:51 pm
In ARU fantasies they are a rugby drawing card whereas the truth is the Boks and All Blacks are the bigger drawing card.
If SARU pulls the plug on 3N it’ll be a 40% loss of revenue and quite likely Investec will pull their sponsorship of ARU’s Super Rugby tournament.
NZ have little money and a lot of dedicated and passionate players and fans and the ITM could conceivably survive.
Rugby Union in Australia would die.
I can understand why Aussies would be opposed to South Africa leaving SANZAR but who could blame our guys…
November 11th, 2011 at 4:32 pm
Isn’t the travel north faster and less expensive than the travel to the arse-end of the world?
Makes more financial and commercial sense (Heineken Cup is definitely becoming popular)and South Africans have a lot closer connection to the UK than to Australasia.
Personally I can see the Brits taking a friendlier angle on having South African teams participate than they would for example the Italians etc.
I would also be more inclined to watch Saracens battle against the Bulls than sitting through a boring 80 minutes of the Hurricanes and Reds.
November 11th, 2011 at 10:20 pm
Reply to Great White Shark @ 4:32 pm:
I’ve always had an old-time respect and
some affinity for the All Blacks – since
the 1956 tour that I listened on radio.
With the latest rantings and RWC 2011 I
don’t feel the same any more.
As for OZ: I cannot imagine the Wallaby
jersey and tradition is in any way comparable
to that of the Boks.
Fook both antipodean teams.
November 12th, 2011 at 1:21 am
Reply to Boertjie @ 10:20 pm:
“As for OZ: I cannot imagine the Wallaby
jersey and tradition is in any way comparable
to that of the Boks.”
Don’t kid yourself there just because you don’t know it’s history here…
Like South Africa it’s a minority sport here having to compete with the oldest oblong-balled sport in the Southern Hemisphere namely AFl, with every bit the prestige and old boys club…
For every Tommy Bedford there is a Robert Prosser, for every Uli Schmidt there is a Phil Kearns, for every Mark Andrews there is a John Eales, Joost a George Gregan and so forth…
There is every bit as much tradition to those pulling on the Wallaby jumper… after all despite being almost 2 centuries younger than RSA… Australia started it’s first competitive rugby club almost a decade before RSA did the same…
In fact the first official British Isles tour and test match not to mention the first test between Australia and New Zealand happened before the Bok was even a twinkle in Pool Roos’ eye…
It’s no wonder the Bledisloe is so steeped in history and important to the two teams… there’s never a ‘B’ team sent unlike the ‘Mandela Cup’.
November 12th, 2011 at 10:54 am
Funny how the gloss has come off the whole Southern Hemisphere thing since the “Suzie saga”, “Get those Yarpies”, the Oceana voting cover up for South Africa’s first Football World Cup and the Bryce Lawrence reffing debacle and subsequent thumbs-up from his cronies in NZ…..
…there is a sense of criminal sleaziness when I think of that side of the world…it’s really an uncomfortable and unpleasant feeling.
I once reserved my distaste for all things English but have done a complete reversal on that initial stance since the last few seasons of sitting through dozens and dozens of hours of outright biased commentary and reffing in the Super Series and Tri-nations.
The taste in my mouth reeks of something fishy.
November 12th, 2011 at 11:14 am
Reply to Great White Shark @ 10:54 am:
A great steak every now and then is excellent.
A great steak every night for 10 years becomes a bit shitty.
November 12th, 2011 at 11:44 am
Reply to bryce_in_oz @ 1:21 am:
Thanks for the info. I just cannot imagine
rugby being such an integral part of OZ
sport and being so revered as in SA.
NZ, yes.
Reply to Great White Shark @ 10:54 am:
“…there is a sense of criminal sleaziness when I think of that side of the world…it’s really an uncomfortable and unpleasant feeling.”
—–
Same here.
Reply to Morné @ 11:14 am:
Very good analogy.
Although I know you’ll agree doing a
braai often is something quite different.
All the magic has gone out of the
rivalry, all results have become
quite forgettable.
November 12th, 2011 at 12:06 pm
Reply to Boertjie @ 11:44 am:
But I don’t braai steak every time!
Rugby, although worth millions commercially today, has become cheap.
November 12th, 2011 at 2:34 pm
Morne
Hi.
Did you find that tracking number perhaps?
Cheers
November 12th, 2011 at 3:45 pm
Reply to Methos The French Stormer @ 2:34 pm:
Sent to your hotmail address dude.
November 12th, 2011 at 7:23 pm
Better future for us in the NH.
leaves the kiwis on their own.
That way we won’t play them as often
and won’t see it as “normal”
when we lose against them.
more often than not.
Same as for Aus.
November 12th, 2011 at 7:24 pm
Methos!
Congratulations!!!
November 12th, 2011 at 9:22 pm
Once the Boks move north they will destroy Australian rugby.
There is far bigger cash in the northern hemisphere than here.
In fact SARU takes the EOYT’s JUST for the money! Really just for the money.
KIlling off the Australians as a rugby power would be a small price to pay…
I would go as far as to say we’d cause serious harm to New Zealand rugby as well.
November 13th, 2011 at 3:07 am
Morné @ 11:14 am:
Good analogy… however coming from a master-carnivore-braai-master… perhaps you should have said…
‘One cannot eat beef or a single cut every night, but varied cuts and meats are essential for variety’…
November 13th, 2011 at 3:08 am
Reply to Boertjie @ 11:44 am:
I cannot stand Spiros Zavos and his ‘anti Japie’ slant… but boy he wrote a great book on Aus/NZ rugby rivalry/history… amazing how old the rivalry/tradition is…
November 13th, 2011 at 3:17 am
Reply to Duiwel @ 7:23 pm:
Exactly
November 13th, 2011 at 3:20 am
Reply to DavidS @ 9:22 pm:
Rubbish… union is on an upward curve in Aus… and this will continue even ‘if’ the Boks take the soft option and move to the NH for sub-par opponents which will NEVER happen anyway fore-mostly as it’s too expensive an option…
November 13th, 2011 at 2:17 pm
A North-South alliance makes a lot more sense for TV scheduling than an East-West one but the problem is whether the NH clubs want/need South Africa. Probably not.
Either way Aus/NZ will be fine on their own. More likely they will eventually drop SARU, than SARU dropping them.
November 13th, 2011 at 5:18 pm
Truth in that.
Timeo says:
November 13th, 2011 at 2:17 pm bryce_in_oz says:
November 13th, 2011 at 3:20 am
Historically SA and aus are about the same
as far as success
and NZ way out by themselves.
Does the NH need them?
No.
Could it be commercially viable?
Yes.
Could it be a beginning to and eventual
world season?
Evidently.But merely a beginning.
Yes ,financially more expensive however
with a bigger viewing public
and agressive marketing
your income will also improve
probably significantly so.
mainly i would like to see it happen that
we play less agains NZ
so that by losing less
maybe shake the “normality”
of it.
Playing in the NH would teach us other skills too
and the EOYT will be OZ and NZ.
cool.
less could mean more seats
or test series tours.
November 14th, 2011 at 4:46 am
IMHOWMFA we should get the hell out of SANZOO.
This will be great for South African rugby and will lift our game.
South Africa is been used by the other two and let them play on their own. They claim they dont need us, we dont need them as I think the frustration of S15 and Trinations on the in-equality of the officiating hurts the players.
Reply to bryce_in_oz @ 3:20 am: sure in your inner melbourne upper middle class ra ra subura forrester world but not out on the paddocks of Australia on a Saturday. Football or soccer it is.
November 14th, 2011 at 6:07 am
Reply to Kevin_rack @ 4:46 am:
You’re incorrect yet again… The Super 15 final broke all historical records for ‘any’ codes of football in QLD… the heart of league land…
As of 2011… the 5 highest ‘national’ grossing Foxsports programs were all rugby union by viewing nunbers…
Need me to carry on?
You’re wrong… again…
November 14th, 2011 at 7:26 am
Reply to Kevin_rack @ 4:46 am:
I for one would be more than happy to walk away from the overloaded and boring Super Series. It’s been flogged to death now. If I have to see another Chiefs vs Waratahs game I’ll literally shit my pants.
The interest in the north is certainly more appealing now as it has not been done before.
Leave the Australasians to go it alone and hopefully for them it continues to grow. Give the smaller islands access to the Series as it will also help them develop their games.
It’s seriously boring now and we need out.
November 14th, 2011 at 9:17 pm
K-rack,
However we look at it,
performance\success wise
we are about on par with AUS
but way behind NZ.
They turn out a better skilled player.
To lift our game we should not only think physical
but skilled rugby player.
nd then look long and hard at our coaching set-up.