JEFF PROBYN – A FRONT ROW VIEW OF THE GAME
It was just a couple of weeks ago that certain people were up in arms because the South African clubs had fielded weaker teams rather than their full strength sides in away games during the Champions Cup.
There were even calls for them to be ejected from the United Rugby Championship by some who felt they had let down the competitions by seemingly not taking them seriously. This has led to an open debate that is still taking place whether just on the social media forums or behind the closed doors of its fellow URC members, which could eventually lead to South Africa teams no longer playing in Europe.
There are two schools of thought when this scenario is being discussed: the first is that it helps the South Africans improve their international team by allowing its players the experience of facing the best European players in club competitions before playing them at international level.
Others will argue that the opportunity to play against them also helps the European teams as the game that is played in South Africa is very different to the game played here in Europe.
Then there are those who say travelling and playing there is difficult for players, as the turnaround time is short and doesn’t allow players enough time to recover from the journey and adjust to playing at altitude before playing the games.
While I agree playing at altitude does take some getting used to and you do need time to adjust to the fitness differences that altitude creates on the pitch, a flight is a flight and has the same impact on whichever team is making the journey.
However, it makes far more sense for South Africa to play in Europe which is a relatively short 5,635 miles away, rather than Australia at 6,860 miles or New Zealand being 7,573 miles. With both countries more than 1,000 miles more distant than Europe from South Africa it makes sense to include them in whatever competitions we can, even perhaps the Six Nations.
Regarding the subject of resting players for away games, the South African club sides have taken a step forward in player welfare which has resulted in them winning all their home games and have proved a worthwhile opposition for the best the URC have to offer.
That said, it should be incumbent on all participants in any rugby competition to field their best possible team to ensure a true competition with their best offer for a real chance of winning. However, it is not just South African teams that have sent weaker sides to compete in various competitions as a number of the Premiership sides have done exactly that in last week’s matches.
The funny thing is, I was speaking at a dinner last week and in the Q&A section I was asked if I thought Northampton were now the best team in the Premiership, following their 90-0 victory over Gloucester. I said it was hard to judge as Gloucester had rested a few players in preparation for their bottom of the league clash with Newcastle in an attempt to make sure they didn’t finish the league fixtures as the only team to lose to Newcastle, which they didn’t winning by 54-14.
“Supporters pay their money to see the best players on the field in the hope they will win”
Meanwhile, Northampton, sure of a home fixture in the semi-final no matter what the result, rested players and lost to Bath 43-12 thus ensuring that Bath too have a home fixture for their semi-final.
In the other play-off game for a place in the semi-finals, Saracens rested players and lost 20-10 at home to Sale, losing any possible chance of a home semi-final.
There can be no doubt that Saracens in particular will be disappointed that they missed out on the chance of a home fixture and must now face Northampton at Franklin’s Gardens on Friday night, while Sale travel to Bath for their game on Saturday.
Next week’s matches will be the first choice players for each of the clubs in an effort to reach the final play-off to identify the winner of this season’s Premiership.
The thing that puzzles me is, why have there been no calls for these teams to be thrown out of the Premiership semi-finals?
The actions of these teams are the same as the South African teams, if not worse as Saracens rested players for a home match while Northampton were only travelling just over 100 miles.
Surely the fans from all teams would be right to expect their teams to field their best available players to compete in these games, even if it was a foregone conclusion that they would make the semi-finals because of their league positions.
Given the bad reaction of fans and officials to the actions of the South African URC members fielding weakened teams and the possible consequences that could still see their removal from that league and the Champions Cup, perhaps a rethink is advisable.
I would have thought that would have sent out a message to all in the professional game, it is the supporters who are the people that pay their money to see the best players take to the field in the hope that their best team can and will win.
Resting players for important games should not be acceptable even if the result is a foregone conclusion.
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