South Africa in the Six Nations: For and against
South Africa’s potential transition into the Six Nations has been one of rugby’s hottest issues in recent months
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It’s become more and more of a hot-button issue as the game moves on and continues to rear its head when the future of world rugby is discussed.
The possibility of South Africa merging into Northern Hemisphere rugby and the Six Nations has never been one that has been hidden - it has been a discussion point around the game’s top tables for several years.
Indeed, there were points in 2020 where it was reported that it was a done deal and the transition would take place after the 2023 World Cup - something the Six Nations organisation has firmly denied.
While nothing concrete has yet emerged, the rumours will not abate that there is real potential in the world champions joining Europe’s elite on a long-term basis.
The logistical problems that have been made clear around their continued involvement in Super Rugby:
Excessive travel
Difficulty of managing vastly separated time zones to put games on when everyone can watch them
Need for teams from all nations to spend weeks at a time ‘on tour’ to ensure a fair balance of home and away fixtures
But with any problem, there must be a question of whether any alternative is actually an improvement or whether it simply replaces those problems with different ones.
South Africa joining the Six Nations has plenty of sense behind it and must be considered a workable solution if the game’s administrators continue to float the idea.
But, crucially, does it create more issues that will just lead to a similar situation where we find ourselves looking for answers?
Here are the pros and cons, as we at The Flanker see it, of the Springboks joining the Six Nations on a permanent basis.
For
Time zones
This is the biggest complaint that has been levied by South African audiences at the current international setup and it is one that makes it easy to see why they would be open to a change.
When their domestic Super Rugby franchises and Springboks travel abroad for games in Australia or New Zealand, the matches end up being played at ungodly hours for their home audiences.
Whereas most of us like to have a beer over a game, South African viewers are more likely to be watching their team over a bowl of corn flakes having dragged themselves from their beds at 3am.
It is difficult for South Africa’s rugby audience to maintain motivation to give back to the sport when half the games they want to watch are on at times that stop them viewing in the way rugby should be viewed.
What is more, if they want to go to an away game, it becomes an issue of travelling thousands of miles rather than the English circumstances where we can drive a couple of hours down the road for a 3pm kickoff and be back home by dinnertime.
If they were to transition into the Northern Hemisphere calendar, the time zones would sync up in a way that would make it much easier for South Africans to commit to their team.
The travel issue would not abate but getting games on at a time that actually makes them viable for one of the nations involved is still as good a place as any to start.
Presence in the Pro14
Ruan Pienaar’s Cheetahs face an uncertain future but have been part of the Pro14 for a number of seasons
Credit: Johan Pretorius/Gallo Images
Now, I know the future of South Africa in the Pro14 (well, the one that still exists) is very dicey given the developments of the Covid pandemic - with the relevant franchises not travelling abroad and basing themselves exclusively in South Africa for this season.
The idea of the Springboks moving into an expanded Six Nations may have seemed an idea that was laughed out of a room a decade ago, but the reality is that there is now domestic groundwork that supports the idea.
The induction of the Cheetahs and the Southern Kings into the Pro12 - or the Pro14 as it became - after their removal from Super Rugby, while not a smooth transition, showed the potential for further alignment between the home nations and South Africa.
They struggled for results after joining but that must at least partially be put down to the resources available to them and the quality of their opposition rather than anything else.
Anyone worth their salt went elsewhere to stay in the Super Rugby competition and, therefore, Springbok contention.
However, logistically the move has gone down okay and the fact that it is now accepted as a quirk of the calendar rather than anything particularly debilitating shows the potential.
Admittedly, the Southern Kings will struggle to see the plus side of this, given they no longer exist any more after entering into voluntary liquidation as a result of the Covid pandemic.
There would need to be kinks to be worked out - the question of how to cope with the extended travel that would be needed to ensure their presence in the Six Nations (in a way that did not compromise the whole tournament) is a key one.
Because let’s face it, the way Super Rugby sides need to go on mini-tours as part of the regular season and play multiple games in a row away from home (almost living in a bubble, if you will…) is not something players are devoutly thankful for.
However, what has already happened could arguably represent sufficient proof that there is a precedent for the move and that in theory it is not only possible but in some ways beneficial.
More quality fixtures for the Six Nations teams
Viewing the potential transition from a Six Nations point of view, the prospect of the European nations testing themselves against top-quality Southern Hemisphere opposition has got to be an exciting one.
Six Nations audiences would be treated to more top-class international fixtures between genuine world heavyweights, which would give rugby a boost in the sporting marketplace when it comes to drawing an audience.
More top teams coming together means more quality fixtures - with the equation seeming relatively simple when you put it that way, but there’s more to it.
The other intriguing aspect to the move in terms of the challenges it would present to the likes of England would be not only playing a top side but also a team that presents a completely different brand of rugby to anything they tend to come across in the Six Nations.
This provides invaluable experience and developmental opportunities for the Six Nations sides and will provide the reverse to South Africa as well with the European nations probably providing more regular tests for their dominant forward pack than the likes of Australia currently.
Rather than meeting each other once a year in the Autumn Internationals and then having a tour every few years, it would provide regular opportunities for both to expose themselves to different brands and speeds of rugby which might lead to positive development on both sides of the coin.
Closer to unification of global calendar
It’s become the hottest phrase in the game over the last two years - the idea of a ‘global calendar’ to bring the rugby world onto the same page.
The idea that the nations at either end of the planet could be brought onto the same page, disregarding the seasonal differences inherent to each of the major nations, to make rugby more watchable and increase its standing the world over.
It would be in service of that ideal that South Africa’s potential move to the Six Nations would have been mooted.
Putting aside the benefits for the Springboks themselves and their fans, the biggest boon - at least as far as World Rugby is concerned - would be the step it represented towards the unification of the hemispheres and the groundwork for a true global calendar.
Whether that would manifest as something in the vein of the previously mooted World Nations Championship or some other kind of new competition as yet inconceived by the game’s overlords, remains to be seen.
While it may be too soon to consider the realistic possibility of a global international league of the kind that has already been roundly panned when suggested in recent times, there is still plenty of scope to cross the invisible divide that still separates the rugby hemispheres.
The Autumn Nations Cup, with Fiji’s involvement, could have been a prime example of that. Sadly Covid, ruined that as it did with many other things.
However, for those that see the unification of the global game as the way forward for rugby across the world, there is no denying they would see South Africa integrating with the Six Nations as a key milestone on that journey.
Super Rugby opportunities for Japan and Pacific Islands
Japan showed in the 2019 World Cup that they are ready to take their next step
Credit: Matt Roberts/World Rugby via Getty Images
If the 2019 World Cup taught us anything, it is that Japan at least are ready to step up to rugby’s top table.
The way they dispatched Scotland and Ireland (many people’s tournament favourites a year before it kicked off) on their way to their first-ever knockout stage appearance, as well as a more than creditable performances against the eventual champion Springboks in that quarter-final, was notice enough that they are a major player.
It only makes sense they are given their place among the biggest names in the game to allow them to fulfil that promise.
They are not the only ones seeking their place at the Tier 1 feast. There has long been pressure to allow the Pacific Island nations of Fiji, Samoa and Tonga greater exposure to top-level rugby - something we at The Flanker are fully in favour of as well.
That tantalising idea is another possibility opened up by South Africa moving north.
Any absence of the Springbok franchises from Super Rugby offers up space to allow these other nations to put their case forward and build more substantial, more meaningful foundations to allow their national sides to thrive.
The national sides would benefit by filling the gaps in the Southern Hemisphere schedule that would be left by the removal of the Springboks, paving the way for more games between Australia, New Zealand and Argentina and the Pacific Islands, Japan or even the USA who are also touted as among the pretenders to the top table.
South Africa moving into line with the Six Nations and integrating into Northern Hemisphere competition at all levels might just provide invaluable opportunities to emerging nations to cement and accelerate their progress into genuine competitors, something that will only serve the game as a whole well in years to come.
Against
Cutting Oceania adrift
Just as the Rugby Championship appears to have got its mojo in order with the rapid improvements seen in Argentina, the withdrawal of the Springboks from the traditional yearly format would throw a pretty major spanner in the works.
The 2020 version of the competition gave us a lot of storylines that will become part of the ongoing narrative of world rugby - the apparent mortality of New Zealand, the gradual rebirth of the Wallabies under Dave Rennie and the sudden emergence from the shadows of Argentina into a genuine force to compete with the traditional heavyweights.
However, it needs to be pointed out that all this taking place without South Africa made 2020’s Tri Nations, as it was, seem disappointingly short of the mark.
Without the mettle of the traditional competition bruisers, who as a side note just happen to be the reigning world champions, it made for a competition that was in its own way enthralling and intriguing but lacked the real punch of seeing all four sides going at it.
Argentina have made for a very exciting Rugby Championship future - but will it be wasted if South Africa leave?
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It was a reminder of why Argentina were introduced - to further their development, yes, but to beef up a competition that had become a tad formulaic and mix up the established setup.
The mouthwatering prospect of four sides who can all knock each other over going head to head is one that would get any rugby fan excited, but no Springboks sets the competition’s recent development back a fair few spaces.
What’s more, if South Africa were to vacate their space in the competition, it would not only leave a gap in the international competition but also leave Super Rugby at a serious crossroads.
Although with the Covid fallout, this may be one it is facing anyway.
The point remains that bringing one of the Southern Hemisphere heavyweights to the Northern Hemisphere on a more permanent basis would further estrange Super Rugby to a potential captive audience in other parts of the world.
In an era where rugby is trying to find its place in a global sporting marketplace, it does not make sense for the game to potentially cut adrift one of its crown jewels in the popularity and watchability of Super Rugby and the Rugby Championship.
Accommodating all South African franchises into club calendar
While incorporating the South African national team into Six Nations competition might be comparatively straightforward in terms of logistics, the baggage that would come with it would be something else entirely.
The national team aligning with the Six Nations would also necessitate the further integration of South African club sides into Northern Hemisphere club competition.
There have already been two South African franchises introduced into the Pro14 in recent years and it’s fair to say that in itself has been a tricky transition - both on the field and off it.
Imagine now having to find room in the club calendar for the likes of the Sharks, Bulls and Stormers as well as everything else jammed into what is a potentially overpacked club calendar.
Add in the discussions about how to build up the club foundations in emerging nations like Georgia and their potential introduction into European competitions, and then suddenly the whole thing starts to look logistically unfathomable.
Loss of traditional Tri Nations rivalries
If the two nations’ opening fixture of the 2019 Rugby World Cup was any indication, the rivalry between South Africa and New Zealand is one that rugby fans the world over will still beg to watch.
The two old foes have emerged as one of the most thrilling rivalries in world rugby, with numerous games in recent years underlining just how much they push each other to the limit.
We can even go back as far as their semi-final clash in 2015 as evidence of the high-quality rugby they regularly produce.
Although not on the same tier, South Africa also have a rivalry with Australia going back years that can also produce the goods.
If South Africa were to make the permanent move in alignment with the Six Nations calendar, the opportunities for these battles would become thinner and thinner on the ground, which could be a major detriment to the game in terms of global audiences and the attraction of rugby to those in other areas of the world.
Where do other emerging powers fit in?
The induction of South Africa into the Six Nations could further block Georgia’s route into regular top-level games
Credit: Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images
We have discussed above the potential opportunities that South Africa’s absence would mean for emerging nations in the Southern Hemisphere.
However, there is a very prominent other side to that coin - there are just as many emerging nations in Northern Hemisphere rugby that are already arguing for what is probably more limited space.
Even without a potential entry for South Africa, there are few enough spots available at the top table in the Northern Hemisphere calendar that the possibilities for nations like Georgia and the USA are already being loudly debated.
Put South Africa into that already-crowded melting pot and suddenly the opportunities for these emerging nations slim almost to the point of impossibility.
As it is, it took a world-altering pandemic to manufacture circumstances where Georgia and Fiji could be given a shot in a Tier 1 competition and it’s hard to see it becoming a regular occurrence without a major global overhaul.
Even putting aside the reduced likelihood of the likes of Georgia making their way into a regular Tier 1 calendar with even more competition, the move would leave the Northern Hemisphere competitions oversubscribed and the southern counterparts short, even with the chances for the teams like Japan and Fiji.
What do you think? Should South Africa be further inducted into the Six Nations or should things stay as they are? Let us know at hello@theflanker.co.uk or comment below.
