Rugby in South Africa has two faces, the one that was on show through the Super 14 and against Wales and the one that is the day to day reality of club rugby. What follows is an honest appraisal of the current structure and exposure of rugby in the Republic.

Rugby in SA appears at the moment to be structured where all the media effort is placed on the top level of the pyramid and very little attention is focused at the base so it is likely to crumble very easily.

Just look at the following levels of rugby in SA:

Test
S14
Currie Cup A Div
Sevens
Vodacom Cup
Varsity Cup (new in 2008 & limited to certain varsities only)
U20 Provincial Currie Cup
Currie Cup B Div
Schools (Craven Week & Classic Clashes)
Supersport Club Champs (limited to certain clubs / varsities)
Provincial B Sides
Club leagues within respective provinces (Open done to U8)

All of the above except the last 2 structures receive very good (if not too much) TV coverage and so the sponsors all go there and lots of effort is pumped into them. Although the Supersport Club Champs get TV it is limited to only the top teams from each province playing a week-long event once a year – other than that, there is nothing for the club players except their local pub or company sponsorship.

Surely the Currie Cup B division or Vodacom Cup should be replaced with a national club competition.

The millions of rands that Vodacom throw at the Vodacom cup should go into club rugby in my opinion. I have left out the general school games / league because apart from the FNB Classic Clashes which get televised weekly, the school system is self-sustaining and extremely strong in SA. There is way more money in the average school rugby system than at the average club.

Just compare this to what happened recently in England – the world record attendance for a ‘franchise’ match was between 2 clubs, Wasps and Leicester. A week before this Munster had won the European Cup in Cardiff in front of 75,000 fans.

Back in 1996 when rugby went professional, the southern hemisphere were quite confident that club rugby in the UK would not survive professionalism and that the franchise route of ‘bigger is better’ was the way to go…

Well, in 2008, with the world champs and All Blacks in the same hemisphere, it is quite something that it is up north where all the money and progression really is.

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