{"id":8224,"date":"2012-02-23T02:31:29","date_gmt":"2012-02-23T00:31:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/02\/rugby-possible-relegation-drives-south-africas-super-teams\/"},"modified":"2012-02-23T02:31:29","modified_gmt":"2012-02-23T00:31:29","slug":"rugby-possible-relegation-drives-south-africas-super-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/rugby-possible-relegation-drives-south-africas-super-teams\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby-Possible relegation drives South Africa’s Super teams"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Ken Borland<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

JOHANNESBURG<\/span> Feb 22 (Reuters) – Possible relegation from
\nSuper Rugby will be the strongest driving force for South
\nAfrica’s five franchises in 2012, with the Lions and Cheetahs
\nmost in danger of extinction.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

While the Stormers, Bulls and Sharks all have enough
\npedigree to make winning the tournament their priority, for the
\nLions and Cheetahs – who have just seven top-10 finishes between
\nthem in the 16 years of the SANZAR competition – it will be a
\ndesperate battle for survival.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The Eastern Cape-based Southern Kings have won promotion
\ninto Super Rugby next year in the South African Rugby UnioN
\n(SARU) boardroom, meaning one of the current five franchises
\nwill have to make way for them.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The “big five” have called on SARU to prevent any of them
\nbeing dropped by convincing SANZAR to make it a 16-team
\ncompetition, but they are unlikely to win that battle with
\ncontracts signed with broadcasters and franchises through to the
\nend of 2015.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The Johannesburg-based Lions managed a fairytale domestic
\nCurrie Cup triumph last year, but are currently in the midst of
\na financial crisis and a lack of top-class players could count
\nagainst them in the more competitive and demanding southern
\nhemisphere tournament.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Elton Jantjies, 21, emerged as a slick flyhalf who served a
\nfluent backline well in last year’s Currie Cup, but he and
\nveterans Butch James (flyhalf) and CJ van der Linde (prop) are
\nthe only current Springboks in the Lions squad.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Lions coach John Mitchell is in a typically defiant mood,
\nhowever.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“Our only concern is ourselves and our environment, not what
\nother people are saying. We’re just interested in our goals as a
\nteam, we’re familiar with each other and that’s something I
\nbelieve we can bank on,” the former All Blacks coach said on
\nWednesday.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ken Borland JOHANNESBURG Feb 22 (Reuters) – Possible relegation from Super Rugby will be the strongest driving force for South Africa’s five franchises in 2012, with the Lions and Cheetahs most in danger of extinction. While the Stormers, Bulls and Sharks all have enough pedigree to make winning the tournament their priority, for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-8224","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8224\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}