The Cheetahs are allegedly in such financial strife that they’re about to lay off more than a quarter of their permanent workforce.
I can’t say I didn’t see this coming, but that doesn’t make it any more palatable. The situation facing the Cheetahs and their future is just terrible.
Contracted players won’t be affected by the retrenchments, but one’s got to wonder how the Free State Rugby Union can afford to bring in someone like Faf de Klerk, who is rumoured to be moving to Bloemfontein (where his wife and her family are from), when office workers are being sacked?
Even so, it’s no surprise things are not going well for the Cheetahs.
Given the boot
Not too long ago they were part of Super Rugby, then they played in the Pro14 (which became the United Rugby Championship), but they were summarily kicked out of all the international competitions, with SA Rugby having a say in the decisions, simply because they were not as big as the Bulls, Lions, Sharks and Stormers. Whatever that might mean.
The Cheetahs have since been fighting a lone, and losing, battle for greater recognition in international rugby, without success. They’ve simply had no place to earn a proper and sustained income.
SA Rugby and whoever else has been responsible for the decisions to marginalise the Cheetahs should be ashamed of themselves.
Cheetahs need opportunities
I just don’t understand why when SA Rugby negotiated with Northern Hemisphere rugby bosses to establish and join the now URC they didn’t simply insist that five South African teams would play in it.
There is no reason the URC can’t consist of 17 teams. And there’s not even a promotion-relegation opportunity, which there should be.
There must be an opportunity to try get them into the URC, especially with Wales set to cut one of their sides. It would be a life-saver to them. So, come on SA Rugby, do your thing and make it happen.
South African rugby has always had the so-called big five, including the Cheetahs, and it’s time the wrongs of the past were corrected. The Cheetahs need to run freely again, without any restraints.
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