With just two teams remaining in the United Rugby Championship (URC), a new champion is on the brink of being crowned as the Bulls and Glasgow Warriors continue to battle for glory.
Instead of celebrating the two teams who qualified for the grand final, rugby fans have devolved into a frustrated debate over South Africa's participation in the URC, which they say is hindering fan travel, especially with the flagship match being played in the Rainbow Nation for the third consecutive year.
Essentially the argument is that it would be extremely difficult for fans to successfully organise travel between the Northern Hemisphere and South Africa within a week, especially as the location of the final would be confirmed after the semi-final. This argument also works in the other direction, where it would be nearly impossible for South African fans to even travel, let alone obtain a visa to the Northern Hemisphere, within a week.
As the debate on social media rages and becomes increasingly polarized, we decided to explore the options further and offer you the opportunity to vote below.
Option 1: Exclude South African teams
That may already sound ridiculous, but considering it's a team with travel issues, it's technically an option.
However, excluding the South African team is objectively a bold decision as the URC has improved significantly since its inception and appears to be constantly breaking records in attendance and viewership.
Option 2: The finals will be held in a neutral geographic location
The Middle East is an obvious choice given the strong interest in rugby in the region, but partnering with a place known for human rights violations and other unethical practices goes directly against rugby and our human values.
One option to achieve a geographical split would be to host the tournament somewhere in Central or North Africa, but that might not make sense if two teams from a similar region reach the final.
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Option 3: Neutral venue, changed annually
Similar to the Champions Cup, this option would see the final pre-arranged in a different location each season – potentially across Europe and South Africa – with the major advantage of giving fans time to plan in advance.
The downside is that in the final there will be no home advantage so a team's position may carry less weight, and like the current issue we're facing, we won't know if a team will make it to the final until after the semi-finals, meaning fans may have to take some chances.
Option 4: Leave it as is
Securing a home final means certain teams and their fans have a better chance of winning than others. Of course, in an ideal world, fans would have enough time to plan and travel, but unfortunately that is not the case.
There's tax on everything and having a South African team there will create travel issues, but rugby has huge audiences and will have some of the best players in the world taking part, so that creates problems.
At some point you have to “choose your poison.”
Tell us what you think
Obviously there are more than three possible solutions to this issue, but for now these are the main options. If you have a better solution or further comments on the subject, please email us with your thoughts (planetrugbyeditor@planetsport.com) and it may be featured on our platform.
We're also running a SuperBru pool in the run up to the international matches in July, where you can predict upcoming test scores and compete against our writers – click here to take part.
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