The Grubber: SA rugby could fall behind from SANZAAR competitors due to Covid-19

THE sporting world and its schedule has been completely rocked by the coronavirus pandemic and World Rugby has confirmed in its return-to-play guidelines, that matches do not have to be played behind closed doors until a vaccine to the Covid-19 pandemic is freely available.

This announcement by World Rugby might have prompted the New Zealand government to give a 10-week New Zealand competition involving its five Vodacom Super Rugby franchises the green light.

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World Rugby did stress that the return-to-play strategy will differ from country to country and will be determined by the respective country’s national government directives.

With South Africa still at level 4 of the lockdown – it could take a while for our players to take the field again as sporting activities might only resume when the country is on level 1 of the lockdown.

New Zealand is already on level 2 of the lockdown and according to the Guardian, Australian sports are taking steps to make a comeback but it is unlikely Rugby Australia will only make a return-to-play announcement next week.

Rugby is only likely to return to Australia in July and, according to Bloomberg news,  Argentina has extended its lockdown till 10 May, but are keen to ease restrictions in the smaller regions.

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Our main Sanzaar rivals are seemingly making progress with their lockdown plans and it poses the question of how SA rugby will do if they fall behind their rivals with game-time and match fitness.

Medical experts have warned against a ‘peak of the curve’ that could come in South Africa when August and September comes around. This lessons the chances of domestic rugby making a return and the world champions to show their skills between the four white lines in the Rugby Championship come August.

Knowing how competitive our players are and how well organised our world cup winning staff, led by Jacques Nieneber is – the Springboks will be keen to get a taste of any sort of test-match action.

Even if Australia and New Zealand will be presumably well prepared in August, it’s likely the world champions will be itching to get on the field and work as hard as possible to reduce the gap somewhat.

The tests against Scotland are unlikely to happen as SA rugby’s focus will be on getting the players ready with a local competition of our own – that could prepare the men in green to defend their Rugby Championship title.

If and when the infection rate eases and the government feels that it’s safe to resume sporting action, we have no choice but to wait and speculate over the near future of local rugby.

*Notice: Coronavirus reporting at Caxton Local Media aims to combat fake news

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