Firstly, there is no way I can see the IRB sanctioing thisscrum5 wrote:So not content in trying to destroy the game in the northern hemisphere, this clown and his numpties are also trying to destroy the southern hemisphere game. Time the IRB told the ERU to reign in their clubs or else no RWC....ladyboy696969 wrote:Watch out! The South Africans are coming!Premiership tempted by taste of Currie after aversion to latest European recipe
Alex Lowe Last updated at 12:01AM, November 23 2013
Premiership Rugby has held talks with the South African Rugby Union (SARU) over the possibility of creating a new tournament for next season that could involve English top-flight clubs and teams from the Currie Cup.
It is very much a contingency plan at present because the English clubs’ priority is still to deliver a new pan-European Rugby Champions Cup (RCC). Mark McCafferty, the Premiership Rugby chief executive, maintains his organisation’s alliance with the French clubs and Welsh regions is still strong.
However, there is at present no legally binding agreement between the three parties and the nightmare scenario for Premiership Rugby is that the clubs in Wales and France end up falling into line with their unions, which have committed to an alternative 20-club European competition.
That would leave the English isolated and with three options: to fall in line themselves and go back on two years of hard rhetoric that they would never be part of any competition run by European Rugby Cup Ltd; to take the financial hit and not form any new competition; or to look elsewhere.
The “elsewhere” option is South Africa, where there is already considerable appetite to break away from the existing tie-up with Australia and New Zealand to explore options in Europe. One source told The Times: “South Africa is seriously interested in a European alternative to Super Rugby”.
The advantage for South Africa would include fewer matches for more money, less travel, and it would allow them to introduce a sixth franchise.
South Africa’s Super Rugby teams would not be in a position to join a new competition until the 2015-16 season, after the present Sanzar contract expires. However, for next season they could make available provincial Currie Cup teams such as Western Province, Blue Bulls and the Sharks.
The English and South African seasons would need to be brought into line because the Currie Cup final is in late October and the season re-starts in February, but early indications from SARU were that it would be willing to make a competition happen.
Of Premiership Rugby’s other options, McCafferty insisted that English clubs would not be involved in any competition run by ERC, the present Heineken Cup organiser. It appears they would rather be in no international tournament for a season.
There is no sense of panic at Premiership Rugby because the BT Sport television deal has swollen its coffers and it will gain additional revenue next season from a fourth autumn international. Premiership Rugby may well never have to consider those three scenarios, but they are exploring contingencies because there is as much uncertainty as ever over the future of Europe.
Pierre Camou, the president of the French union (FFR), is confident he can persuade the Top 14 clubs to withdraw their support for the RCC. He has offered financial incentives and warned the clubs that a new agreement on player release and broadcast rights will not be possible unless they do.
The Welsh union is also engaged in negotiations over a participation agreement, but it has so far failed to persuade the regions to turn their backs on the RCC because the announcement of the new union-led competition was short on detail.
There was no mention of a television deal or which teams would participate. The question remains how valuable the union-led competition would be to broadcasters and sponsors without the English clubs.
It is on that basis that McCafferty believes the French and Welsh clubs could have a legal case if their unions stopped them from joining the RCC, which he says would be more lucrative. The Welsh regions are not minded to test it in court.
Secondly, if for some insane reason the IRB actually do sanction the saffas playing in an NH competition, would they not want to play against teams that are actually good enough to win the Heineken Cup and not a bunch of also rans?
