Two-time Rugby World Cup-winning Springbok Frans Steyn has doubled down on his stance that the Toyota Cheetahs deserve to play in a competitive competition and should be given the green light to join the Southern hemisphere’s Super Rugby Pacific tournament.
About a year ago, during the Currie Cup Premier Division competition, Steyn – then director of rugby at the Cheetahs – said of the Bloemfontein team reaching out to Sanzaar to return to Super Rugby:
I am pushing hard for us to go South. “But politics is a massive thing in rugby, and I am starting to learn it as I go. It is flippen tough…
Now Steyn, who has taken up the head coach position of the Free State-based team, has echoed the very same sentiments as a guest of former Springboks Juan de Jongh and Rudi Paige’s Behind The Ruck podcast show.
SA Teams Belong in Super Rugby
This time, going even further and saying that not only the Cheetahs, but all South African franchises should leave the United Rugby Championship (URC) and return to Super Rugby.
Steyn said:
Over the last couple of months, I realised the URC (United Rugby Championship) is quite a big thing, guys want derby games. But, for me, personally, I think we should go back to the old Super Rugby competition [where all SA, New Zealand and Australian teams play each other once a year on a home and away basis].
I think it was just something different and the young guys of today definitely miss out on [that experiences]. If you think about it when we went on five-week tours, it was one tour, not every second week on a plane. A stupid thing, this new calendar we are in, if you [as players and coaches] have kids, you never have off.
You can’t go on holiday, when do you go on holiday. You can’t because in December you are still playing rugby.
Cheetahs Biding Their Time in Rugby Wilderness
However, the 78-Test capped Bok says he has learned during his time as Director of Rugby at the Cheetahs that it takes a lot of patience and deliberating with the mother body, the South African Rugby Union (SARU), if the Cheetahs will one day get to play in a big competition again.
And of that Steyn told De Jongh and Paige:
We are open to anything at the moment, but I think Saru has got a massive job to do. So, you hit the end, where Saru decides you’re in or you’re out, so I hope that from our side, they need to start backing us and try to help us to get into Super Rugby. Otherwise, you are not gonna get in there.
Reflecting on his time as a player in Super Rugby, Steyn added:
Jirre (Jeez) it was lekke toere (tours) man, it was good… especially with the New Zealand guys coming over here, you know, how many people. I mean the New Zealand teams have a massive support base in South Africa…
While Steyn pleads for rugby in the global South to return to its former glory days, it is tough to see SA Rugby making a U-turn on their decision to move up north. Especially after it was New Zealand who cut the cord during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 by saying they will forge ahead with a new competition that only includes the Australian teams, while two Pacific Island teams, Fijian Drua and Moana Pasifika, have joined the tournament in recent years.
SA’s URC Moves True Test Is Coming
And while a lot has been made of how New Zealand has started falling away as a competitive Test team by not playing against SA team in Super Rugby, Steyn agreed with De Jongh and Paige about how the opposite will also become true for SA players in future.
Kicking off the debate, Paige said:
[Former Bok] Gio Aplon came on the show and he had this take that we will only know what the URC players are like after this current crop of Springboks [retire]. Because all of the current Springboks had their initiation in Super Rugby. So, after this current group of Springboks, it will be the first time that we will see whether it is a good competition or not.
To which Steyn replied:
I have never thought about it like that, but it will be interesting. Dit gaan flippen snaaks wees… It will be interesting to see the guys coming through how their skills developed, and all that, it will be interesting.
But you know how it is, you think people will be missed, but the wheel just keeps on turning, and currently with Rassie [Erasmus] there, they have a brain trust. They make a plan with anything and with what they’ve got, they make a plan, and then that specific individual will look like a star. I think we will miss them (retiring Boks) for a couple of games, but it won’t be for too long.
