Gavin Rich unpacks a structural problem baked into the Rugby's Greatest Rivalry tour before a ball has even been kicked. The "best available" agreement for franchise games against the All Blacks sounds reasonable on paper, but collides badly with South African rugby's calendar reality. URC franchises are deep in pre-season — players have been back in training for roughly three weeks after a mandatory post-season break, and their Springboks are all in camp. The teams that face the All Blacks will be underdone, short of their best players, and a long way from match hardness, while the tourists have just played three tests together. Rich contrasts this with the 1976 tour, when franchise opponents were battle-hardened mid-Currie Cup and beat the All Blacks multiple times — the conditions that made those games genuinely competitive simply don't exist in the professional era.
The piece also flags the Currie Cup alternative — using those squads instead — and dismisses it immediately given the hammerings those XVs took over the weekend. So the franchises are caught: play underdone first-choice squads and risk injuries that damage URC campaigns before they start, or accept that the tour openers will be lopsided and give a misleading read of South African rugby's real depth. Rich adds a commercial sting — Stormers/All Blacks tickets are apparently pricier than any URC game the Stormers control, and sales are soft. If the on-field product underwhelms, the showcase opener could land badly on multiple fronts.