The Springboks should skip Rugby Championship
DURBAN – As this annus horribilis for world rugby grinds to an end, there is growing reason for the Springboks to write off 2020 and focus all their energy and wisdom on the British & Irish Lions tour – and knowing Rassie Erasmus as I do, he will wholeheartedly concur.
Folks, sending a half-baked Bok team to do disinterested duty in a Rugby Championship to be held in a “bio-bubble” in Australia, and which is happening just for the sake of broadcasting revenue, makes little sense for the Springboks given that short-term financial gain in November would be more than offset in the long term if the brand takes a hammering.
The Boks are the champions of the world, their stakes have never been higher and all competitions around the world want a piece of Siya Kolisi’s men, so why allow the aura to be heavily eroded by inevitably heavy defeats? The series against the Lions, the biggest rugby event outside of the World Cup is perfectly set up so why ruin that by participating in a horribly flawed Rugby Championship?
I am not being defeatist, just realistic given that New Zealand has been playing for four months, and Australia for three, while South Africa’s players have had just three weeks of contact training.
The playing field is just too uneven. It would be suicidal for the Springboks to play Test rugby in just six weeks time given how to ring rusty they would be, and it would be irresponsible for SA Rugby to compromise the Bok brand if they can help it. To me, Sanzaar is clutching at straws in insisting that the Rugby Championship goes ahead. They have lost Super Rugby after New Zealand and Australia mid-lockdown announced their own selfish plans for the future, so the Rugby Championship is now a life raft for a governing body desperately trying to stay relevant.
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