Goodbye Lions, Hello Kings?

oldBastard

oldBastard

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Goodbye Lions, Hello Kings?

It can be goodbye Lions, hello Kings come 2013 as a political decision has been endorsed to allow only ONE TEAM per PROVINCE.

Lappe Laubscher reporting exclusively for RuggaWorld.com asks the question of exactly who is uninformed and who is trying to fool who?

PLEASE NOTE: The heading an intro is not the making of the author but was done in the editing process.

Newspaper stories in South Africa suggests that the South Africa Rugby Union is in a highly embarrassing situation after the board promised the Southern Kings franchise of Port Elizabeth that they will play in the Super 15 competition next year.

SANZAR is adamant that there is no place for a sixth South African franchise in the competition and SARU thus far has kept mum on the issue.

But facts tell a different story. A story of the behind the scenes influence of politics and big money.

Let us look at these facts.

Last month there was a major indaba between the Minister of Sport, the department of sport and the various stakeholders in South African sport at the historic Wanderers Club in Johannesburg. At this indaba a document on the future of South African sport was presented by the department of sport was endorsed by the minister and the various delegates.The document is now the official document on the policy of the South African government on sport.In the document, among various other issues, it is stated that as from 2013 no sport will be allowed to enter more than one team per province in any competion. At the moment the South African teams in the Super 15 are Bulls (Pretoria and Gauteng), Lions (Johannesburg and Gauteng), Cheetahs (Bloemfontein and the Free State), Stormers (Cape Town and Western Cape) and lastly Sharks (Durban and KwaZulu-Natal).

It is obvious from this document that the Gauteng province will only be allowed to enter one team and will have to choose between the Bulls and the Lions or combine these two teams.

The Southern Kings` home is Port Elizabeth and the Eastern Cape.

In the last week of January 2012 the Gumede group brought an application for the liquidation of the Golden Lions Rugby Union. There has been no decision on this application. This group was a previous co-sponsor of the GLRU. The group claimed that the Lions owe them more than R90 million. Thus far Mr Kevin de Klerk, the president of the GLRU has denied this claim. In his denial he was unclear whether he only denies the quantum of the claim or whether he denies the claim as such.

Sail (Pty) Limited, a group in the Rupert stable with a major interest in various sport and leisure activities in South Africa, has an interest in most of the South African rugby franchises with the exception of the Lions. Unconfirmed reports indicate that this group also has an interest in the Southern Kings. The Rupert-group also has a direct interest in Supersport, the company who has the South African broadcast rights for the Super 15 and in Media 24, South Africa’s largest media group. The face of Sail is the highly respected former Springbok captain, Morne du Plessis.

Lastly it is also a known fact that rugby has come in for a lot of pressure from the South African government for their seemingly unwillingness to provide opportunities for black players to perform at top level. The new CEO of SARU, Jurie Roux, has committed himself to rectify this position.

Allmost from the sidelines, the Tshwane Sports Council has already announced on its website that the colours for teams representing the region (that includes Pretoria and the Bulls) will in future play in be black, green and gold. This will mean the end of the famous blue jerseys that the Bulls used to play in.

In the meantime, the Bulls announced in a seemingly unrelated move that they will in future play in a jersey with diagonal lines in various shades of pink across the chest in their games away from home. According to a press release, that simply doesn’t make sense, this is to “scare” their opponents.

With all these facts as a background it only makes political sense to bring the Super Kings to the party as soon as possible. The only stumbling block at the moment is sponsorship deals in which the players and some of the franchises are involved.

It seems as if SARU is deliberately delaying the announcement of who the Super Kings will replace till the end of the 2012 Super 15 competition to accommodate present sponsorships.

How all this will affect smaller unions like Boland and Border remains to be seen.

In the meantime Cycling SA has almost quietly announced that the sport has last weekend adopted a new constitution to bring it in line with the new government policy.

RW: Laubscher is a retired sports journalist and specialises as an historian in the fields of sport and the Anglo Boer War. He is resident in Pretoria.
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Goodbye Lions, Hello Kings?
 
DWPTA said:
Just not rugby, what about cricket? Titans and the Highveld Lions? Then we are not even talking about the soccer teams!!!
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A Blue Bull supporter.

I think you missed this gem.

Allmost from the sidelines, the Tshwane Sports Council has already announced on its website that the colours for teams representing the region (that includes Pretoria and the Bulls) will in future play in be black, green and gold. This will mean the end of the famous blue jerseys that the Bulls used to play in.
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Blue Bulls draped in ANC colours.:whistle:
 
Time for all those lazy-assed sports fans to cast their votes in the next election instead of bitching from the sidelines :p
 
MickeyD said:
Time for all those lazy-assed sports fans to cast their votes in the next election instead of bitching from the sidelines :p
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+ 1 Trillion (I guess we can start using numbers like that now ;) )
Don't forget that Tshwane and the Eastern Cape were the two provinces people were saying would be close in the last election... Get off your ass next time you get a chance to tick a box other than the ANC one... Mmkay.
 
Why not "Goodbye Bulls, Hello Kings"? Why must it be the Lions to go? After all, they won the Currie Cup last year :confused:
 
McT said:
Why not "Goodbye Bulls, Hello Kings"? Why must it be the Lions to go? After all, they won the Currie Cup last year :confused:
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And before that?

History tells us that the Bulls is a better team than the Lions. It's just facts. Especially if you are talking in the context of Super Rugby.
 
Weren't Sail the buggers who pulled out of the Cape Town Stadium deal?

As an aside, it STILL boggles my mind that when they built the World Cup Stadia that the design criteria excluded future use for Rugby and/or Cricket.
 
AfricanTech said:
Weren't Sail the buggers who pulled out of the Cape Town Stadium deal?

As an aside, it STILL boggles my mind that when they built the World Cup Stadia that the design criteria excluded future use for Rugby and/or Cricket.
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:confused: More rugby is currently being played at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium than anything else.
 
Is this the same Southern Kings that lost 88-0 to the Lions in a friendly a couple of weeks ago???

I've said it before and I'll say it again, in a competition like the Super 6/10/12/14/15 there are no weak teams but the franchise's that battle tend to be the South African one's.

Now include the Kings in that equation, a team there purely on the back of a big political push and not merit and you can guess the rest..
 
sand_man said:
Is this the same Southern Kings that lost 88-0 to the Lions in a friendly a couple of weeks ago???
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I doubt next years team will bear much of a resemblance to next years one given the R10mill that has been earmarked to the Kings.
 
bwana said:
I doubt next years team will bear much of a resemblance to next years one given the R10mill that has been earmarked to the Kings.
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Agreed, but I'm suspicious that the team will be as the rest of the other franchises, white with the odd spec. They will buy players from other unions/clubs and as usually the local players will be told to hold on, they will get chance to play. When in matter of fact Cheeky and co. will pocket all the money and the locals will not get 1c.
 
McT said:
Why not "Goodbye Bulls, Hello Kings"? Why must it be the Lions to go? After all, they won the Currie Cup last year :confused:
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No McT sorry but think logically. why would you drop the only SA team to have won the Super Cup (barring the lions in the old S10 which was not under SANZAR)?

GreGorGy said:
+1 BullLion (I guess we can make up numbers like that too :) )
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I read a great article on this and I would not be too upset if this became reality. One of my mates actually emailed me a combined team already :D

EDIT: Here is the article - http://www.sport24.co.za/Rugby/Could-Bulls-Lions-combo-work-20120131
 
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Devill said:
I read a great article on this and I would not be too upset if this became reality. One of my mates actually emailed me a combined team already :D

EDIT: Here is the article - http://www.sport24.co.za/Rugby/Could-Bulls-Lions-combo-work-20120131
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I would accept this on one condition. All home matches are played exclusively at FNB Stadium. I reckon the combined support such a team would garner would ensure the stadium is close to capacity for every home fixture. Add to that the convenience of Gautrain and there no excuses...

Obviously this would never happen and left with the choice between Loftus and Ellis park I would choose the former...
 
sand_man said:
I would accept this on one condition. All home matches are played exclusively at FNB Stadium. I reckon the combined support such a team would garner would ensure the stadium is close to capacity for every home fixture. Add to that the convenience of Gautrain and there no excuses...

Obviously this would never happen and left with the choice between Loftus and Ellis park I would choose the former...
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Yes that will be the major problem... where do we host it.

Orlando Stadium? Although I am not sure if the Bulls supporters will move from Loftus :(
 
I_support_the_Lions.jpg
 
I'd embrace it and FNB in a heartbeat. You see, most of my chinas are Lions or Sharks (the ones who jumped from loser lions) and to have those that stayed loyal to the Lions through thick and thin join me in supporting the same side would be fantastic. Dunno how they'd take it though cos they all say "Lions then whoever plays the Bulls"
 
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