Sanzar "shafts Japie" sides

Respected South African rugby journalist, Gavin Rich, sailed into the stormy seas of SANZAR conspiracy by alleging over the weekend that ‘Japie sides seem to get a rough deal Down Under ‘

In his weekly column in the Cape Town based Weekend Argus, which he whimsically calls ‘Strike it Rich’, he cries out, “Sorry, but from where I’m sitting the ‘Japies’ are still getting shafted.

Opening up the debate is his remark that, “Given that we have now reached the stage it seems referees hardly ever get a call right, it must be testing the patience of those who depend on fair officiating for their livelihood”.

Does this mean all referees are either incompetent, prey to favouring their local teams, or that the burden of policing a modern game of professional rugby is simply too complicated for one man?

Is this why the new skunk in the barn is the ever increasing incidence of referral to the TMO?

Are the TMOs any better equipped to adjudicate fairly and correctly when even the modern technology leaves a question mark over action close to the tryline or in the murky underworld of the rucks and mauls?

Rich kicks off with a withering attack on Steve Walsh whom he describes as “beyond shocking” when the Stormers beat the Hurricanes in Palmerston North at the start of their recent tour, the match where there was alleged verbal abuse, that led to the Stormers being fined R225000 by the Sanzar disciplinary committee.

Rich makes a valid point in his argument that the assistant referee who brought the charges against the Stormers should never have been officiating in the same capacity in the next Stormers game against the Blues, when he was a material witness in the alleged abuse case.

Worst of all, from Rich’s view of the game, the same assistant referee made an incorrect call when Rene Ranger knocked the ball into touch that led eventually to the penalty that Chris Noakes kicked to make the game safe for the Blues. Wow, speculative at best!

Where he has a point is that it not only took far too long for Sanzar to adjudicate on the alleged verbal abuse, and withholding of the substance of the abuse compounded the felony.

This bungling adds fuel to the South African conspiracy phobia about the Australian and New Zealand officials and referees bending it for Beckham to favour Australian and Zealand franchises.

South Africans are still firmly trapped in the ‘Bryce Lawrence’ cause celebre, so that it is little wonder that the story going around South Africa is that one of the Stormers sarcastically said, ‘Dankie’ when Walsh gave them some relief with a decision in their favour. ‘Dankie’ is Afrikaans for donkey, and the urban myth goes that the assistant referee cried foul instead of Breying.

Another story adding spice to the plot is that a prominent referee from Australasia took severe umbrage when one of the Shark’s players was caught flagrante delicto some time back with the referee’s fiancee.It reqired Sanzar and even IRB intervention to smooth the ruffled feathers of the duvet.

The meat of his allegations is what he describes as blatant bias and ganging up by Australian and New Zealand rugby officials in Sanzar, and Australian and New Zealand referees on South African franchises.

Another old hoary chestnut is the tale of the email between two Australian referees, intercepted some years back by South African rugby administrators, but not pursued at Sanzar level. The burning question is ; why was it swept under the carpet?

All the grumbling in South Africa about the alleged prejudice and unfair treatment meted out by Sanzar when it comes to protecting Australian and New Zealand franchises, begs the question.

Why does Mr Rich not provide some hard facts and open up the debate as to why SARU seem to be more wrapped up in the revenue flow from the Super Competition into their coffers, and luxuriating in their plush offices in Plattekloof, Cape Town,than fighting tooth and nail for fair play and a fair spread of goodies on the table.

The average South African rugby follower has little faith in SARU, and mutter about breaking away from Sanzar and the Super Competition altogether, to tie up with the Northern Hemisphere clubs to form a new, much better competition.

Again, this is highly speculative. For the Northern Hemisphere clubs to break up the highly successful Heineken Cup, French Top14 and U.K Premiership competitions, plus a number of other regional competitions which operate in the Northern Hemisphere,a seismic rugby shift is required.

The break up of the Super Competition would be damaging for all three Sanzar partners, but New Zealand and Australia could cobble together a shortened, compact competition between their 10 franchises, and possibly one or even two Japanese franchise, boosted by top players with a yen to earn big bucks. A Polynesian franchise might also come into the picture.

That leaves the South African franchises in a potential rugby vacuum; a situation older South African rugby followers remember with horror.

So, we are stuck with the Super Rugby, and the best we can do is fight tooth and nail at Sanzar level for fair play; neutral referees for all games between franchises from a different country; local referees for all local derbies; full disclosure by SARU of how the South African share of the Super cake is arrived at, and insistence on Sanzar disclosing details of all charges brought before any franchise.

It would be constructive of Mr, Rich to do a brutal expose on what makes SARU not tick, and why they seem to give the family jewels away at every Super/Sanzar revision of the competition.