A devalued Tri-Nations in 2011?

This time last year, the Bulls were almost a week into their celebrations as Super14 champions after having beaten the Stormers at the Orlando Stadium in Soweto on May 29. A year on, there are still three rounds to go in Super Rugby, then quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final on July 9.

On the same day as the final, the Springbok squad will be announced for the Tri-Nations and the very next day, July 10, the Springbok squad assembles for a training camp and not long after departs for Sydney to prepare for their match against the Wallabies on July 23.

It is quite conceivable, even likely, that a South African team will be in the final, so how fresh will the players concerned be for the Tri-Nations?

The answer, in this World Cup year, is reasonably fresh! And that is because Peter de Villiers will not sentence first-choice players to do Tri-Nations duty and then a few weeks later send them back to New Zealand for the seven week-long World Cup.

In other words we are going to have a devalued Tri-Nations in 2011, as we did in 2007, and that is understandable, but what about 2012 and the following two years before the next World Cup year?

The revamped Super Rugby competition (adding a fifth Australian team) is just too long and in non-World Cup years is going to negatively impact on the Tri-Nations. You are going to have national coaches secretly hoping that their country’s representatives don’t make the play-offs.

The extra six weeks added on to the old Super 14 is not so much about catering for the addition of the Melbourne Rebels as it is about accommodating SANZAR’s belief that a double round of local derbies in each of the three countries is what the public what.

Well maybe that it is the case in Australia, where there is no Currie Cup or National Provincial Championship (New Zealand) later in the year, so cashing in on extra Super games gives their coffers a double filling.

Again, in a World Cup year, the sting of all these derbies is diminished to an extent for South Africa and New Zealand in terms of their provincial competitions because the best players will be on duty at the World Cup when the Currie Cup is concurrently on, so this year we will have quite different Currie Cup squads to those that featured for our leading sides in the Super 15.

And this year, the Tri-Nations will be a joke because top players will be rested. The Boks will again send a B team on tour, as they did in 2007, with the main manne staying at home for a training camp. The only front-line players going to Sydney and Wellington will be those coming back from injury and in need of match practice.

Lest we forget, the Boks lost three of their four Tri-Nations games in 2007 and then went unbeaten at France ’07.

But what about next year when it is all about the Tri-Nations? And let’s not forget that next year the in-coming tours resume – England is due to tour South Africa in 2012.

In short, a Super Rugby competition that just about overlaps the international season is crazy. This extra five weeks or so added on to the old Super 14 suits only the Aussies. South Africa has another bout of home and away derbies in the Currie Cup, and that should be cherished because that competition is the cornerstone of our rugby.

We should not be tasked with killing ourselves in this extra six weeks for the sake of Australia.

by Mike Greenaway