South Africa's domestic rugby crisis

At first glance South African rugby seems as healthy as ever, the national team lay comfortably in what seems to be a perpetual second place in the world rankings. This is further bolstered by the common view that the William Webb Ellis will end up in the hands of either South Africa, England or New Zealand on the 31st of October later this year.

The strength of the South African national team is unquestionable despite a rocky 2014 season seeing them win just two of their four test on their European tour on the back of a similarly average Rugby Championship. The Springboks finishing the year with nine wins out of a possible thirteen, average by recent Springbok standards. 

The domestic game in South Africa is in a very different state of affairs. Only the Stormers managed to reach the Super Rugby Play-offs, even still this was only by virtue of winning the South African conference. The Crusaders finished one point above them(on 46 points) but four places below them in 7th position. The other four South African franchises largely made up the bottom half of the table, the Lions enjoying a successful 8th placed finish, while the Bulls, Sharks and Cheetahs finished in 9th, 11th and 12th respectively. If the Super Rugby play-offs were decided on merit alone then no South African team would have made it. 

Taking this into account the re-entry of the Southern Kings into Super Rugby next season as one of three new sides and South Africa's sixth side in the competition appears obviously flawed and a huge stretch of resources, both in terms of finance and more potently players. Does South Africa have enough players up to the standard? Heyneke Meyer's two most recent training squads certainly indicate so, in total these squads contained 60 players. All 60 of those included play their rugby with one of the five existing Super Rugby sides with 19 of these players uncapped. 

The absence of a large number of Springboks or potential Springboks playing abroad from these squads was highly noticeable when name-checking the squads. While this is not a massive issue for the South African national team itself, as the SARU has chosen to allow Meyer to select overseas players, it is having a sizeable impact on the competitiveness of South Africa's Super Rugby sides.

Toulon alone had 6 Sprinboks on their books last season, with the retirement of Bakkies Botha and the signing of Vermeulen maintaining this number ahead of next season. The Du Plessis brothers are joining Jake White in Montpellier along with 6 other South Africans including Pierre Spies. Morne Steyn recently won Le Bouclier with Stade Francais and Gio Aplon is currently playing for Bernard Jackman's Grenoble. This list is just a quick sample and could keep going for a while. This clearly shows the impact of South Africa deciding to select overseas players, they opened the door a little bit and seemingly the floodgates have opened.

South Africa also has one of the highest rates of natives taking advantage of the infamous three year residency rule to represent other nations. Richardt Strauss received his first cap for Ireland against his native country in November 2012, Robbie Diack too was capped for the first time last year and CJ Stander looks certain to wear the emerald green as he qualifies for Ireland later this year. Josh Strauss and WP Nel have also been included in Scotland's World Cup squad ahead of their qualification under the ruling later this year. The French national team is also guilty of using the residency rule for their own benefit, seeing Rory Kockott and Scott Spedding both becoming French internationals in 2014. Brad Barritt is another who chose another nation over South Africa but, not via the residency rule, he qualifies for England through his Rhodesian parents.

While these players are not necessarily deemed to be worthy Springboks in some cases, their absence, among many others, is having a sizeable impact on the competitiveness of the the South African franchises in Super Rugby. The player drain shows no signs of stopping, both in terms of capped and uncapped South Africans, infact it is happening much more now than ever.
While the impact is evident in Super Rugby now it won't have a big impact on the strength of the national team for a while yet, but it will.

South Africa took a bold risk by allowing the selection of overseas players and thus far it has benefitted the national team. However, a continuation of this policy while also attempting to expand their amount of Super Rugby franchises is perplexing. Their assumed motivation must be based on the more Super Rugby teams they have the more Super Rugby players they have and as a result the more potential Springboks they have. More teams residing in the bottom half of the Super Rugby table is no benefit to anyone, especially considering the quality of the players South Africa allows to ply their trade abroad. It is a clear case of the SARU prioritising the national team above all else and the longer this rule is in place as it is now the bigger a negative on the Super Rugby franchises and the national team in the longer term.