OPINION: Where do Cheetahs and others fit into Rainbow world?

What next for the Cheetahs, Pumas, Griquas and, yes, even the EP Elephants?

All four teams remain without a competition to play in despite South Africa’s big four “Super teams” set to play in a domestic-only competition from next week.

Where next for those players?

While the announcement by SA Rugby on Wednesday that the Rainbow Cup will now be played as two competitions (in Europe and in South Africa) because of travel restrictions and has nothing to do with any other teams (because they were never involved in the Rainbow Cup in the first place), surely the change in competition structure means the South African competition can be adapted to include the four other “Currie Cup and Preparation Series” teams?

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Or are there other agreements in place restricting the inclusion of the Cheetahs and Co in the now-to-be-called Rainbow Cup SA?

Cheetahs coach Hawies Fourie, who has been vocal about his team’s exclusion from the original Rainbow Cup, recently said he’d know more about where next his team would play once the finer details of the Rainbow Cup were sorted out.

Well, the details are sorted out – there will be no inter-hemisphere matches – and still it’s the four “big boys” who’re being looked after.

A Toyota Cup or Franchise Cup involving the Cheetahs, Pumas, Griquas and Elephants, to run concurrently with the Rainbow Cup, was mentioned some time ago, but will this competition still go ahead? Is it not easier and more simple to just throw all the teams into one competition?

Not a single word was mentioned in the presss release by SA Rugby on Wednesday about the fate of the so-called smaller teams, so where does it leave them?

Sadly, with Covid hitting hard and governments making the calls, it doesn’t really matter what we call the new competition – coming after the Super Rugby Unlocked competition, the Currie Cup, the Preparation Series – the reality is South African rugby fans, the administrators, the players, and all involved in the game, will have to be content with more domestic local action for the foreseeable future.

It’s the way it is, and there’s not much anyone can do about it.

But, why not let everyone at least get a taste of the action, and be part of the rainbow and share in the pot of gold – however small that may be?