Rugby Championship: South Africa still uncommitted to tournament
The Rugby Championship is facing a chaotic day with South Africa on the verge of pulling out. But is it going to happen and what does it mean for the tournament?
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South Africa could announce they are pulling out of The Rugby Championship today, cutting the number of matches in half.
The Springboks are not fully committed to the tournament, and there are fears they could announce their withdrawal as early as today, with news out of New Zealand suggesting a decision is imminent.
Earlier in the week, a fourth revised draw was issued in an attempt to keep South Africa happy, just as soon as the four competing teams and their broadcasters all signed off on the latest changes, which was expected to see the planned six-round competition reduced to just three rounds, all played in Australia, at grounds in Sydney, Brisbane and Newcastle.
As exclusively revealed by News Corp, the Springboks were baulking at playing a full six-round competition because their best players have only just resumed matches after the lifting of the extended COVID lockdown in South Africa.
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Citing “player welfare”, the Springboks suggested to play the Wallabies, All Blacks and Pumas just once each – under the same three-round format that is used in World Cup years.
While a shortened tournament would have a big financial impact for all teams, who had agreed to split the money four ways, it was understood that everyone would agree in the understanding that 2020 has been a year where everyone has had to make concessions and this is just another one.
However it appears those plans have been swept away once again.
“The SANZAAR member unions have agreed to provide South Africa Rugby with an additional 48 hours to finalise its internal stakeholder discussions,” SANZAAR said in a statement earlier in the week.
“This will now delay the scheduled departure of the Springboks from South Africa to Australia.
“SANZAAR will provide an update on the resolution of these discussions and a timetable for the Springboks’ participation in The Rugby Championship when available in the coming days.”
Sources had told The Daily Telegraph organisers were considering up to four different revised schedules for the remaining fixtures but have already ruled out adding a replacement team while waiting for the South Africans to arrive for the second half of the series.
Organisers had begun looking into the possibility of inviting a Barbarians or Australia A side to play in the first half of the series but scrapped that idea after broadcasters showed no interest in the idea.
The Pumas have already arrived in Australia and are looking at arranging one or possibly two warm-up matches now that their first championship match has been pushed back until mid-November at the earliest.
Doubts about South Africa’s participation had been circulating for weeks with the fine print in all of SANZAAR’s statement tellingly including a line each time that the Springboks’ participation was yet to be confirmed.
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The concern for the world champions was that they havdnot played a Test match since beating England in the final in Japan last year to win the Webb Ellis Cup for the third time.
Already at a distinct disadvantage against their opponents, last weekend’s high-quality Bledisloe Cup match between the Wallabies and the All Blacks was the confirmation they needed that they were not ready.