New plan for rugby calendar

CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA - MAY 25: Jean de Villiers (capt) of the Stormers during the Super Rugby match between DHL Stormers and Queensland Reds at DHL Newlands on May 25, 2013 in Cape Town, South Africa. (Photo by Luke Walker/Gallo Images)

CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA - MAY 25: Jean de Villiers (capt) of the Stormers during the Super Rugby match between DHL Stormers and Queensland Reds at DHL Newlands on May 25, 2013 in Cape Town, South Africa. (Photo by Luke Walker/Gallo Images)

Published Jul 10, 2013

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Cape Town - The International Rugby Players’ Association (IRPA) have tabled a proposed calendar change that will reduce the wear and tear on South Africa’s top players, if any of them make it to 2016.

The murderous Super Rugby format cannot be altered until the current agreement, valid through to the end of the 2015 season, runs its course.

The IRPA changes would benefit all Test-playing nations, though the intensity of Super Rugby’s South African conference suggests that players from these shores would benefit most.

“The idea is to reduce the number of games and increase the recovery periods for top players,” SA Rugby Players’ Association CEO Piet Heymans told Cape Argus on Tuesday.

“The details still need to be ironed out, and the devil is always in the details, but the proposal is to have Super Rugby start later, say in March, and end earlier, in June, with the June Test window pushed back to July.

“To make this work, the competition will probably have to be expanded to 18 teams in a format that isn’t necessarily round-robin.”

If approved, the new schedule could see the 18 teams split into three pools, with the winners of each pool and a wildcard team advancing to the semi-finals. This would reduce the number of Super Rugby matches played by each team from the current maximum of 19 in a season to 12.

Players not selected for Springbok duty during the July Test window would have a month’s break before the Currie Cup commences.

“The Springboks would probably miss all of the Currie Cup,” added Heymans.

“The July Tests will lead into the start of the Rugby Championship in August, and the Springboks would have a chance to recover in October before the November tour to Europe.”

This season Stormers skipper Jean de Villiers faced Boland in a pre-season friendly on February 9 and then started 13 consecutive Super Rugby matches before leading the Boks into battle during the quadrangular series against Italy, Scotland and Samoa.

A chest injury suffered against the Scots saw him miss the Stormers’ recent wins against the Cheetahs and Kings, but he is expected to be back in action against the Bulls at Newlands on Saturday.

The veteran centre will then feature in six Rugby Championship Tests between August 17 and October 5, returning just in time for Western Province’s final league match, against the Sharks at King’s Park, and the Currie Cup play-offs.

The domestic cup final takes place on October 26 and, a fortnight later, the Boks square up against Wales in Cardiff before facing Scotland (November 16) and France (November 23).

De Villiers’s off-season will comprise a two-week break in December.

It’s clearly an unsustainable model, as highlighted by the second-rate Super Rugby teams on duty this week, and all stakeholders would be wise to pay heed to the players’ feedback.

Cape Argus

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