The Rugby Championship to be cut in half
Cut-price Championship to appease Boks
Julian Linden, Sport Reporter
News Corp Australia Sports Newsroom
8:32PM October 14, 2020
This year’s cursed Rugby Championship could be scaled back to half its intended size as part of a last-minute compromise to ensure that world champions South Africa take part in the tournament.
A fourth – and hopefully final – revised draw will be issued around the end of this week, just as soon as the four competing teams and their broadcasters all sign off on the latest changes, which is expected to see the planned six-round competition reduced to just three rounds, all played in Australia, at grounds in Sydney, Brisbane and Newcastle.
The Springboks are baulking at playing a full six-round competition because their best players have only just resumed matches after the lifting of the extended COVID lockdown in South Africa.
Citing ‘player welfare’, the Springboks will instead suggest to play the Wallabies, All Blacks and Pumas just once each – under the same three-round format that is used in World Cup years.
While a shortened tournament will have a big financial impact for all teams, who had agreed to split the money evenly, it is understood that everyone will agree in the understanding that 2020 has been a year where everyone has had to make concessions and this is just another one.
The two Rugby Championship matches between Australia and New Zealand – due to be held in Sydney on October 31 then Brisbane on November 7 – will proceed as planned.
However, South Africa’s first scheduled game, against Argentina in Brisbane on November 7, is almost certain to be scrapped with the remaining matches all to be played in New South Wales once the final schedule is decided.
“The SANZAAR member unions have agreed to provide South Africa Rugby with an additional 48 hours to finalise its internal stakeholder discussions,” SANZAAR said in a statement.
“This will now delay the scheduled departure of the Springboks from South Africa to Australia.
“SANZAAR will provide an update on the resolution of these discussions and a timetable for the Springboks’ participation in The Rugby Championship when available in the coming days.”
Sources have told The Australian organisers are considering up to four different revised schedules for the remaining fixtures but have already ruled out adding a replacement team while waiting for the South Africans to arrive for the second half of the series.
Organisers had begun looking into the possibility of inviting a Barbarians or Australia A side to play in the first half of the series but scrapped that idea after broadcasters showed no interest.
The Pumas have already arrived in Australia and are now looking at arranging one or possibly two warm-up matches now that their first championship match has been pushed back until mid-November at the earliest.
Doubts about South Africa’s participation have been circulating for weeks with the fine print in all of SANZAAR’s statement tellingly including a line each time that the Springboks’ participation was yet to be confirmed.
The concern for the world champions is that they have not played a test match since beating England in the final in Japan last year to win the Webb Ellis Cup for the third time.
Already at a distinct disadvantage against their opponents, last weekend’s high-quality Bledisloe Cup match between the Wallabies and the All Blacks was the confirmation they needed that they were not ready.
Meanwhile, New Zealand not content with getting away with highway robbery in last week’s drawn first Bledisloe Cup test are trying another swiftie ahead of Sunday’s second encounter at Eden Park.
Anyone who watched the opening match knows the Kiwis got the rub of the green with most of the contentious decisions – including being awarded a try after Rieko Ioane stepped on the touchline in the lead up – and not being penalised for a clear infringement when they were under pressure defending their own line in the dying final few minutes.
But that hasn’t stopped the All Blacks from a side splitting claim that while they “don’t cry”, they were really upset by what they insists were rough tackles from the Wallabies that went unpunished by the referee.
“That type of play on the field has got to be dealt with by the ref,” New Zealand’s assistant coach John Plumtree said.
“There were several occasions where there was some off-ball incidents, but it’s got to be dealt with properly on the field.”
For experienced Wallabies prop Allan Alaalatoa, New Zealand’s complaints are nothing more than an amusing distraction to what the Australians need to focus on.
“That’s definitely something we expect from them, especially going off the last couple of years,” Alaalatoa said.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/spo...02790c88e7df23
