Rassie Erasmus pitches moving Rugby Championship to lighten load on Springboks

Rassie Erasmus. Photo / Photosport

Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus has put forward the idea of moving the Rugby Championship to the New Zealand summer, as a means of fixing the game’s congested calendar.

At present, given the Rugby Championship is played from August to October, South Africa are disadvantaged by the fact their club sides are now based in Europe.

In 2020, as Super Rugby’s previous competition format was destroyed by Covid, South Africa’s sides joined those from Scotland, Wales and Ireland to form the United Rugby Championship.

However, that has effectively flipped the world champions’ domestic calendar, whereby they now operate out of the northern hemisphere.

As a result, South Africa are effectively playing year round, with their club commitments coming in the northern hemisphere winter, while their test duties conform to the southern hemisphere.

For Erasmus, now in his second stint as Springboks coach, moving the Rugby Championship to the start of the year, and therefore align with the Six Nations, is the ideal solution.

“I think it would have sorted out a lot of problems, player load and injury-wise, with the URC and European Cup it would definitely free up a lot of weeks for us,” Erasmus told the UK’s Daily Telegraph.

However, while Erasmus did put forward one huge change to test rugby, he is also eager to stay away from another.

Long before South Africa’s club sides moved from Super Rugby to the north, the same scenario had been proposed to see the Springboks move from the Rugby Championship to the Six Nations.

Of the four Sanzaar sides – including New Zealand, Australia and Argentina – South Africa are more tactically aligned with the northern hemisphere, while travel logistics would also be more favourable.

Off the field, the television rights money involved in the Six Nations also dwarfs what Rugby South Africa would earn from staying in the Rugby Championship.

But for Erasmus, any desire to see South Africa relocate north is not reciprocated by the sides he’d be playing against.

“Us joining the Six Nations, I’m not sure how that sits with other people,” Erasmus added. “We admire the competition and when I was at Munster I realised how big it is.

“For me, having been there for 18 months or so, I’m not sure if the Six Nations and northern hemisphere would want us in there.

“There are a lot of traditions that are a little bit more valuable than us just fitting in and thinking we can just go into a competition that has a hell of a lot of heritage, so I’m not what the answer is there.”