Does South African Rugby Need its Own Giteau Law
A lot has been said about South African rugby teams in Europe. For the first time ever the SA franchises are playing in the European Rugby Championship Competition, The Vodacom Bulls, The Cell C Sharks, and The DHL Stormers are all vying for European honors.
Jake White, is the Director of Rugby at the Vodacom Bull, based in Pretoria. He has had a different experience of rugby in another continent.
The Bulls were accused of not taking the European Championship seriously. After fielding a largely inexperienced second-string team and going down 44-14 at Sandy Park at the hands of Exeter Chief on Sunday 18TH.
The team was missing key springboks in the likes of Johan Goosen, Cornel Hendriks, Embrose Papier, Lionel Cronje and Canan Moodie.White left most of his starters back in South Africa, preparing for the clash against the United Rugby Championship champions (URC), the Stormers, the following Friday.
“Well, I am not disrespecting the tournament but it is a case of picking our battles. We left South Africa on Thursday to be here on Friday because we had to fly via Doha in economy class and that makes our journey more than 20 hours,” White said.
For context, Harlequins flew business class from London to Johannesburg and London Irish had a direct flight to Cape Town, both these flights taking no more than 10 hours, the Bulls spent double that time.
“When joining Europe was sold to us, we were convinced that we would not succumb to time zone differences, and long-haul flights with numerous connections,.”White added.
White, who is a well-established international coach, has served in Australia, France, Japan. He is a World Cup winner with the Boks in 2007 and knows his way around huge tournaments. To win the European Championship would mean beating Toulouse, Leinster and one of either Saracens or La Rochelle on three consecutive weekends.
With the travel demands South African teams have to deal with, coupled with smaller squads, the feat looks like a Kilimanjaro effort teams would fall short of.
When asked about potential solutions, White brought up the idea that South Africa has a lot of players playing for foreign outfits in leagues around the world. Under the current regulations, Springboks can play in overseas teams and still be eligible for the national team.
South Africa is the only team in the top five world rankings that allows foreign based players to be eligible for the national team. Australia has the Giteau law and New Zealand recently refused to give an exemption to Beaudan Barrett’s request to play in Japan but still be eligible for the All Blacks.
“Patriotism works, we need to incentivize our players to stay in the country, it has to cost something to play for the green and gold, players cannot have it both ways, earn a lot of pounds, euros and still be able to play in the national team,” said White.
Jake White surely has a point, one of the reasons South Africa took away the 30 cap rule was because of the run of poor form under Alister Coetzee between 2016 and 2017. When Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber came in, part of their deal meant that the restriction had to go, to give the access to the best players around the world who are eligible for the Boks.
This has left South African franchises lacking depth in the form of seasoned campaigners at the top of their game. Jasper Wiese, Faf de Klerk, Vincent Koch, and Trevor Nyakane all play out of South Africa.
White believes that players need to be backed into a corner and forced to choose to either earn a lot or play for the Boks. “There is a reason why Leinster is so successful in Europe because it is essentially Ireland and Irish players are not eligible for the national team if they are not playing locally in Ireland.”
Bulls coach Jake White believes the policy of allowing overseas-based players to represent the Springboks is something that may need to be revisited. #DStv403 #eNCA pic.twitter.com/h9fY9R7VWm
— eNCA (@eNCA) December 19, 2022
Many jubilated when there was an all-South African final in the inaugural United Rugby Championship earlier this year, but this season is different, the European Championship brings a different prospect and challenge.
One could sense a feeling of betrayal from the powers that be after White described the current circumstances he has been placed under. Whether it is the long flights in coach, squad depth or the sudden changes in temperature with South Africa being in summer and Europe being in winter.
White has been vocal about the situation, and the Bulls are one of the well-financed teams in South Africa, one can only wonder what life down in the Cape for the cash strapped stormers looks like.
If the South Africans are going to do well in Europe, then better conditions for the teams need to be in place. Flying around the world doesn’t allow them to perform at their peak considering the stern opponents they will face in the European Rugby Championship.
Hanging on the debate of whether the South African franchises belong in Europe is a cognitively dissonant argument that ignores the fact that there are over 300 South Africans playing for European clubs and that number excludes naturalized Europeans who have switched allegiances such as Duhan van der Merwe and Paul Wilmse.
SA teams are in Europe to stay and the competition will only go back to it’s so called glory days if the SA teams are given a better platform to attack from by those in front of the decisions that drive our game forward.
