Currie Cup under threat of being called off

The 2024 edition of the Currie Cup is under major threat of being called off due to a reported boardroom battle over the workloads of professional players.

This year’s competition has been moved to a new slot between July and September, so that it doesn’t overlap with the Vodacom URC or European Cup, as it did last year.

A new format was drawn up that divided the eight teams into two pools of four.

Each team would reportedly play the teams in their pool home and away and will play just one game against each opponent in the other pool. This means that each team will play 10 league games this year before the playoffs, as opposed to the 14 that they played last year.

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However, according to Sunday newspaper Rapport, there is major conflict over the Currie Cup taking place during the off-season for URC teams.

Concerned for players

The players’ association MyPlayers is concerned that the South African season will now run for 20 months straight, without a proper off-season.

According to the report, MyPlayers has referred the matter for formal arbitration. If they win the arbitration case, then the Currie Cup would no longer be played between July and September, while SA Rugby could lose the major sponsor for the tournament.

“If they are successful and the Currie Cup does not continue, many players in the country will be out of a job,” a rugby boss told Rapport.

“They [MyPlayers] keep listening to the top 30 to 50 players, but what about the rest? If MyPlayers is successful and all players have to rest in an eight-week block at the same time, the Currie Cup cannot continue.”

MyPlayers chief executive Eugene Henning emphasised in a letter to players the importance of reserving the window for resting.

“Playing the Currie Cup during the July-September period creates player welfare challenges.

“The practice of letting players play without rest for longer than 12 months is not practiced anywhere in world rugby, nor is it supported by conditioning experts we consulted.”

This story was first published on sarugbymag.co.za. It is republished here with permission.