Springbok great Schalk Burger has hit back at claims that Super Rugby is not missing South Africa.
SA’s four major clubs left Super Rugby in 2020 to join the Vodacom URC, but debate continues over whether the southern hemisphere competition has lost something in their absence.
Super Rugby Pacific CEO Jack Mesley recently suggested the tournament is not hampered by South Africa’s exit and claimed the Republic does not “rate” as strongly – comments that drew sharp criticism.
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“That is nonsense and I think he probably just had to say it as the CEO of Super Rugby. I can understand that to a degree, but I cannot agree with him,” said former All Blacks wing John Kirwan.
“I still feel that if we want to properly develop our players on this side of the world for the challenges of Test rugby, we have to let them play against South African teams.”
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“I think he [Kirwan] has got a point there,” Burger said on the Boks Unpacked podcast. “We were all part of it, Super 12/14/15. I think we lost the plot after that, it got too big, but it’s the greatest comp I’ve ever played.
“Having South Africa there, how can it not add to it? [Mesley] is going to protect his own competition, which he is, but I don’t think there’s any value in that statement.”
Former Springbok captain Jean de Villiers also questioned the basis of Mesley’s remarks.
“I don’t know what it’s based on, whether it’s attendance, viewership or commercially,” he said. “Surely you’re going to say that it’s better now than it’s ever been, but I’d like to see the facts on that.”
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Burger pointed to South Africa’s commercial impact in both competitions.
“South Africa, we were two-thirds of everything commercially in that business model,” he said.
“Look at the situation with the URC and what South Africa has done for the URC, growing it by an exponential rate every year … I don’t think there’s any value in that [Mesley] statement.”
Photo: Paul Kane/Getty Images
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