Boks could get a proper off-season

SOUTH Africa’s top rugby players will be celebrating if a proposal to shift the Rugby Championship to March is approved.

Currently, the big hitch to SA’s move to the northern hemisphere at provincial level is that it means no time off – the Sharks, Bulls, Stormers and Lions play all 12 months of the year, while the Springboks host an incoming tour in June, play the Rugby Championship until October, and conclude with a November tour to Europe.

So it makes sense that SA Rugby is reportedly trying to convince Sanzaar to bring the Rugby Championship to a slot much earlier in the year.

This would engineer a mid-year break for the top players.

The Sydney Morning Herald says that Argentina is backing SA’s attempt to create an off-season because of concerns over player welfare.

Argentina are in a similar boat to SA in that most of their top players play in the European leagues.

The proposed solution would see the Rugby Championship start in March, rather than in August.

The reports of Sanzaar talks come amid rumours that World Rugby is close to finalising a global Test league from 2026, which would see a change in the July and November Test windows, as well as a grand final between the best northern and southern nations every two years.

However it works out, a twomonth break for SA’s top players would be heaven-sent.

Apart from bodies and minds needing a break from the pressures of a relentless match schedule, the top players currently do not have an opportunity to do pre-season training.

Because the season never ends, the players are not getting a break and then an opportunity to work on fitness and conditioning.

South Africa has an even more unique situation if you add its domestic competition into the equation.

Currently, the Bulls, Sharks, Stormers and Lions have to use separate teams for the Currie Cup and United Rugby Championship.

Because of the new focus on the URC and Champions Cup, as well as the need to manage the Springboks’ workload, the local teams almost never field the national players in the domestic Cup.

The competition is inevitably left to “smaller” franchises to fight for.