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The last-placed South African team in this year's Super 14 will not face relegation after a decision by the country's rugby union on Wednesday.{br}{br}View the Entire Article{br}
Having followed the Spears progress this season against Rep sides etc I think this was the only course of action available to the SARU.
Every match next season would have been borderline cricket scores if their efforts this year were anything to go by.
I just hope that it doesn't become too political from the racial issues that have been previously attached to the arguments.
"Bloody oath we did!"
Nathan Sharpe, Legend.
I'm going to ask the quite obvious question: would the Force have been ready to enter S14 if they had played games ONE YEAR BEFORE entry ? They didn't exist ! Same for the Southern Spears, who were put together as a comglomerate of the three unions in East Cape, who regularly didn't reach great heights in the Currie Cup playing as single unions.
I wrote to SARU with the notion of delaying Spears entry till 2011 (S16?), and in the meantime getting their act together in the CC by making it two tier, with the first tier being just the five S14 union franchises + the amalgamated East Cape unions ie Southern Spears.
Without seeing whether the CC has tiered intentions, there is unfortunately the racial issue behind this. A quota for black players per team has been scaled back to a "gentleman's agreement"- and we all know what that means! However many Saffa black players in the S14 teams - who now fill the 'quota' - actually come from the East Cape region!
So part of the backdrop to the above decision, is that the SARU couldn't fulfil the 'quota' set by the RSA-ANC govt, if the Spears were allowed entry in 2007, and regained their 'born and bred' players.
When the Spears do make it in, it will be very interesting to see how a majority black team go against the other Saffa teams, especially when they've got ALL their contracted players(not so in'06) ,and when they've had the benefit of some serious Currie Cup experience as a combined East Cape team. After all, this is why the Cheetahs were able to hit the ground running this year with their entry into the S14, because they played as a combined unions team in the CC in 2005 ( many of their players were previously with the Cats).
Finally, this is more about SARU not being ready, and organised enough re CC, which will hopefully get the re-structure it needs. The good news is that a 15th team has been already identified, and steps are being put in place for its success with a four year development plan, for the next stage of SANZAR's growth into S16.