Springboks need to become aligned with the North as soon as possible

The Springboks need to align themselves with the North as soon as possible to give the South African sides competing in the United Rugby Championship (URC) and European competitions the best opportunity to flourish.

The four SA franchises have suffered another tough start to the URC season, largely due to most of them being without their Springbok stars, which places a massive burden on their squads in the early stages of the competition.

That, coupled with the teams going on a month-long overseas tour at the start of every season, puts their teams under even more pressure when they come up against full-strength home sides in tough European weather conditions.

Struggles

This season has gone much like previous seasons with the South African teams battling massively while their Bok stars receive a well-deserved break after international duty.

The Bulls are the best performing SA team so far, sitting seventh on the log, having won three games and lost two so far in the competition. On their overseas tour they won two and lost two, but now at least have a number of home games to come.

The other three SA sides are all in the bottom half of the table, with the Stormers ninth, having won two games and lost three, all of which have been on tour so far and they face the possibility of a winless tour if they lose to Cardiff on Friday.

The Lions are 13th having won one game out of five and head back home from Europe having won just once on tour while losing their other three matches.

The Sharks are rock bottom on the log, having lost all five of their games this season, four on tour and their first at home over the past weekend.

Be more competitive

If SA Rugby want the SA teams to be more competitive in the URC and for them to challenge in the lucrative and high-profile Champions Cup (the Champions League of rugby), they will need to get the Bok players into their sides as soon as possible.

With the Rugby Championship in the South and also including Argentina, Australia and New Zealand in such an awkward place, from July to October, it is extremely inconvenient for the franchise teams, so it is important for SA Rugby to focus on either getting the competition moved into the Six Nations window, or look at the possibility of moving up North.