If ever South African rugby needed a reminder, a wake-up call really, as regards the financial potential of rugby in the British Isles and Ireland and where its own most propitious financial future might lie, it came in startling fashion over the Christmas holidays.
Like a lot of other people, I have thought for some time that the day must inevitably dawn when the SA Rugby Union looks again at the issue of where it sees its best future.
In rugby terms, there is no doubt. New Zealand and even Australia, offer a far stronger challenge on the field for the South Africans. These countries are innovative, trend-setters and the best thinkers on the game. They offer a consistently strong challenge that is impossible to better.
Manifestly, as we go into another World Cup year, rugby in the southern hemisphere is stronger than its northern hemisphere counterpart.
But alas, off the field, the southern hemisphere cannot compete with the north. And this is an issue that ought to come back for discussion time and again within the corridors of power in South African rugby.
On 27 December, the London club Harlequins hired the main Twickenham stadium for its Premiership club match against London Irish.
“Quins normally attract crowds of 10-12 000 for their home games but as it was the Christmas holiday, they hoped for anything around 35 000 at the RFU ground.
What they got stunned them: 74 212 turned up for a club game which, unsurprisingly, turned out to be ordinary in the extreme. One punter complained about the endless series of re-set scrums that dogged the game. Another claimed there was so little space on the field that rugby union ought to be reduced to 14 men with the exclusion of the No 8 to create a little more room on the field.
Yet of far greater importance than those issues,and what must have hit the South African rugby authorities in the face, was the stark reminder of the vast financial potential of the game in the northern hemisphere. Why?
Because they have the numbers north of the equator in a way the southern hemisphere rugby-playing nations never will have.
Super 15 rugby is a whole lot brighter and more entertaining on the field. But if you were running a national organisation such as Saru with the ever increasing costs uppermost in your mind, would you not be deficient in terms of your organisation if you didn’t study closely the possibilities of aligning yourselves to a part of the world where such riches exist?
Even leaving the financial issues aside (yet who can do that these days in professional rugby union?), the time difference alone aligns South Africa much closer to Europe than Australia or New Zealand.
The journey is shorter, with no jet lag. Undeniably, the interest would be huge, both in the British Isles and this country, if South African sides decided to make the northern hemisphere their natural opponents.
The tourism potential alone to South Africa would make it a compelling issue. Imagine South Africa in an expanded 6 Nations every February and March.
Thousands would make the journey to this country to follow the competing countries of this famous event at that time of year.
Similarly, great numbers of club and provincial supporters would similarly follow their sides out to South Africa.
Of course, none of this is going to happen overnight and probably not for some years now that Argentina is joining an expanded Tri-Nations in 2012. But in professional rugby of the future, we should know by now not to rule out anything. Money will increasingly dictate every policy.