Festive feast for Lions in new competition

A new domestic competition, which in some quarters is being called the “Super Rugby Zans Africa” competition – and not the Currie Cup – will kick off on October 10, but still needs to be finally confirmed by SA Rugby bosses.

A supposed fixture list for the competition – which will effectively replace the Currie Cup, Super Rugby, the Pro14 and the SuperSport Challenge in the latter stages of the year – surfaced on Wednesday but SA Rugby said they would only make known further details about the competition at a later date. SA Rugby are still awaiting the final green light from government and the various stake holders.

It is expected that the competition, which will run into the new year, will be contested over 14 rounds before the playoffs, with each of the seven teams playing a double round of home and away matches. Each team will play 12 matches and enjoy two byes. The competing teams will be the four Super Rugby sides – the Bulls, Lions, Sharks and Stormers; the one Pro 14 team, the Cheetahs, as well as the Pumas and Griquas. The Southern Kings would have played in the competition, but withdrew from all rugby action for the remainder of the year because of financial constraints.

Prior to the competition kickoff, a Super Hero day is to be held at Loftus with the four Super Rugby franchises in action.

After six months of lockdown the return to action is eagerly awaited. The new competition will initially have to take place in front of empty stadiums with the required healthy measurements and Covid-19 protocols in place. There will be regular testing of the players and coaching staffs.

Lions coach Cash van Rooyen said the return to full contact training – from Monday – was a step closer to the real deal.

“It is a great feeling to get back to contact training,” said Van Rooyen.

“The guys have really worked hard on the non-contact aspects of the game in the last few weeks, and it is a natural progression to now move to contact training.

“We will still manage it in our groups of five, as we feel we can control things a lot better that way, and then we will progress from there.”

If the fixture list that was doing the rounds on Wednesday is to be trusted, the Lions will start the new-look domestic competition with two tough away games, in Durban and Cape Town, against the Sharks and Stormers respectively.

The Bulls will host Griquas at Loftus in their first game and will then travel to Bloemfontein for a tough match against defending Currie Cup champions the Cheetahs.

The Bulls and the Lions will both be in action on Boxing Day on December 26 when the Lions will travel to Loftus. On January 2, the Lions will play away in Nelspruit to the Pumas while the Bulls will enjoy a bye.

The semi-finals are scheduled for January 16 and the final a week later.

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