SA player welfare under spotlight as brutal never-ending season resumes with URC

Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu during the DHL Stormers training session at High Performance Centre on November 26, 2024 in Cape Town, South Africa. (Photo: Ashley Vlotman / Gallo Images)

By Craig Ray

29 Nov 2024

Sharks coach John Plumtree wasted no time in selecting a host of Springboks for their Vodacom United Rugby Championship match against the Stormers.

The starkest illustration of the only downside of South African rugby’s alignment with the northern hemisphere is the never-ending season loop players, especially Test players, are stuck in.

Sharks coach John Plumtree named 10 players who were on the recent Bok tour in his 23 to face the Stormers at Kings Park in their United Rugby Championship (URC) round seven clash this weekend.

Siya Kolisi will lead the Sharks, fresh off steering the Boks to a clean sweep over Scotland, England and Wales on their recent tour.

Plumtree, of course, has his own mandate, and needs and knows that rest blocks for Bok players will vary.

The Sharks are in the business of wanting to win the URC and Champions Cup, which starts in December, and they will select teams to meet their own targets.

It’s important to emphasise that this isn’t a criticism of the Sharks and no one is at fault. It is a lament about the lack of the global season.

Bok players are stuck in a 12-month rugby cycle and while they will have periods of rest and active rest within the URC and Champions Cup campaigns, it’s not an ideal situation.

Read more: Aligned global rugby calendar is essential for players – especially those in the national squad – to catch their breath

Rest periods

There have been concerted efforts by both the clubs and MyPlayers, the South African player’s trade union, to manage the workloads of Bok players.

In 2022 an agreement was reached, limiting players to 32 games in a 12-month period. While that has been adhered to, it’s still an imperfect system because there is no obvious off-season window anymore.

“The SA players who represent the franchises – and don’t play Test rugby – are okay. We can manage them, and the northern hemisphere has been doing that [in the European tournaments] for decades,” MyPlayers CEO Eugene Henning told Daily Maverick in an interview exactly a year ago.

“The challenge comes in with our national players. They need time to mentally and physically switch off.”

In 2023, Bok players involved in the triumphant Rugby World Cup campaign, were given three weeks off following the tournament.

They were then given another five weeks off in February and March to achieve their mandatory eight weeks rest in a 12-month period.

Players not involved in Test rugby were given a mandated eight weeks rest period following the URC.

That changed in 2024 when the South African Rugby Union (Saru) shoehorned the Currie Cup into the rest window, as it was the only timeslot available in an increasingly congested calendar.

It led to a dispute though, because it was in contractual violation of the agreement between MyPlayers and Saru.

MyPlayers and the South African Rugby Employers’ Organisation (Sareo) declared a dispute with Saru, which was resolved through arbitration.

The 2024 Currie Cup went ahead as scheduled from 5 July through to 21 September, but only after a new deal was agreed between the MyPlayers and Sareo to accommodate individual rest periods for players.

It was a welcome outcome to a tricky situation because SA rugby players are inextricably tied to 12-month seasons since aligning with the northern hemisphere.

A non-stop season could not continue indefinitely.

The agreement came with conditions that are important to protect players from being bullied or coerced by rugby unions to play when they shouldn’t, or being denied their rest period.

Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu during a DHL Stormers training session on 26 November 2024 in Cape Town. (Photo: Ashley Vlotman / Gallo Images)

More budget

One of the major concessions is that all South African players in the URC and European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) tournaments will fly in business class or premium economy.

This has been a major factor in player unhappiness and also in their physiological welfare. The new concession will kick in on 1 July 2025 when Saru becomes a full shareholder in the URC and EPCR.

That step means Saru no longer has to pay R330-million for the Bulls, Lions, Sharks, Stormers and Cheetahs to play in those European competitions. The obvious benefit is that the full shareholding frees up more budget for aspects such as travel.

Kolisi and others are going to have to be rested at some stage in the coming weeks, which will impact the URC campaigns of all the South African clubs. The Sharks, with the most current Boks on their payroll, will obviously be impacted the most.

Right now though, Plumtree has obviously taken the decision to load his team and try to bank as many points as possible while they are available.

Plumtree underlined the challenges, using lock Eben Etzebeth as an example of the toll on players.

Etzebeth, who played in 12 of the Boks’ 13 Tests since June, and amassed more than 720 minutes of playing time in international rugby this year. That’s excluding his outings for the Sharks throughout the season.

Etzebeth was replaced after 31 minutes during the Boks’ 45-12 win over Wales last week, and hasn’t been included in the Sharks team this weekend.

“Eben’s body is just a little bit broken,” Plumtree said this week. “He has lots of little niggles. I wasn’t happy with him playing [against the Stormers]. He looks a bit dented, to be honest. We need to freshen him up.”

It probably won’t be the last time we hear a coach saying something similar about a Bok player in the coming weeks and months.

On a more positive note, Bok flyhalf Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu has recovered from a knee injury and will start for the Stormers against the Sharks.

That leaves Manie Libbok, who is the only recent Bok tourist included in the Stormers squad, on the bench. DM

Fixtures

Hollywoodbets Sharks vs DHL Stormers

Date: Saturday, 30 November

Venue: Kings Park, Durban

SA Time: 5pm

Referee: Marius van der Westhuizen

TV: SuperSport

Connacht vs Vodacom Bulls

Date: Saturday, 30 November

Venue: Dexcom Stadium, Galway

SA Time: 7.30pm

Referee: Mike Adamson

TV: SuperSport

Munster vs Emirates Lions

Date: Saturday, 30 November

Venue: Thomond Park, Limerick

SA Time: 9.35pm

Referee: Adam Jones

TV: SuperSport

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