UK scribe: Kick SA teams out of Europe

Veteran British rugby writer Stephen Jones says South African teams should leave the URC and European Cup competitions and revive the Currie Cup.

Asked by Rugby World magazine to draw up his ideal structure for professional rugby, Jones called for a radical overhaul designed to reduce the demands on players, strengthen domestic competitions and cut unnecessary travel.

His blueprint would scrap the Nations Championship and revive the traditional Anglo-Welsh rivalry, with a 12-team Premiership featuring 10 English clubs and two Welsh teams. The other Welsh sides would initially compete in an Anglo-Welsh Championship.

Jones also wants European club rugby rebuilt around stronger domestic competitions and believes South Africa’s involvement in northern hemisphere tournaments should end.

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“Let South Africa be South Africans. Goodbye,” he wrote.

“The most idiotic idea that anyone in pro rugby ever had was to allow South Africa to enter not only the URC but also the major European competitions.

“I may not have been much good at geography but I remember that South Africa is not in Europe.

“South African players and coaches dislike the tournaments, and players in the other nations who compete dislike it too for the same reasons – preposterous travelling, unfocused rivalries, weakened sides being fielded for away games.”

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Instead, Jones wants South African rugby to restore the Currie Cup to the centre of its domestic calendar.

“Away flights would be a maximum of two hours, there would be local derbies, and South Africa now has around four players of Test quality in every position,” he wrote.

“They would flood back to the Currie Cup, or whatever you want to call it.”

Jones was equally dismissive of another concept being discussed in rugby – a World Club Championship.

“No! Gibberish,” Jones wrote. “Stop adding matches invented by bad marketing people.”

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