The Guinness Pro12 is about to grow into a Pro14. It’s rushed, it’s complicated, it’s uncertain and it’s not the development in the direction some were hoping. But, Robin Davey says it’s all about more cash and claims that’s no bad thing.

 

Just as we were thinking same old, same old and another all too familiar Pro 12 season on the horizon – basically stagnating without promotion or relegation – along comes an exciting innovation.

Though time is short between now and the start of a new season, two South African teams are set to take part from September, extending the competition to a Guinness Pro 14.

It won’t, however, be a 14-team league as that would lengthen the season still further, but instead be split into two conferences of seven with two Welsh teams, two Irish and one each from South Africa, Scotland and Italy in the respective tables.

And initial fears that would mean the end of some of the traditional, crowd-pulling, revenue-earning derbies have been allayed by an assurance derbies would be preserved, though quite how the two conferences would operate is unclear. It does seem Welsh and Irish teams might play one more game than the rest.

And though the two South African teams – the Cheetahs and Southern Kings – have effectively been dropped from the Super series Down Under, making them the worst performing of their outfits, at least this move offers something different.

More important than that, it will provide greater revenue streams at a time when the gap between the Pro 12 and English Premiership and French Top 14 leagues is growing ever greater.

It seems likely there will be a tie-up between Sky and South African broadcasters to televise the revised Pro 14 competition and it is believed it could mean an extra £10m to be distributed between the teams.

So, to those who decry the introduction of southern hemisphere teams into a European competition, the riposte is it will mean considerably more revenue which will avoid falling even further behind the English and French superpowers.

In addition, it will offer a greater chance of retaining existing players and attracting new ones as a result of more money spread among the regions/clubs.

Even then there are those in South Africa who still decry the entry of some of their own sides into a northern hemisphere season, claiming that as the two weakest sides they would add little to the competition and matches would also be played out of their normal season.

The venues for all these matches has also to be worked out before fixtures can belatedly be published. There is a suggestion, for example, that some of the games involving the Cheetahs and Southern Kings will be played at Allianz Park, home of the Saracens where there is a strong South African influence.

Alternatively, visiting sides would in all probability play back-to-back games in Port Elizabeth and Bloemfontein, home of the Kings and Cheetahs, trips which might well appeal to fans in the other countries.

Most of the players who might attract the interest of supporters from existing sides are in the Cheetahs line-up, among them back row pair Uzair Cassiem and Oupa Mohoje, the former who played against Wales last autumn, and the latter with 17 caps.

Centre Francois Venter has three caps to his name while wing Raymond Rhale played in all three games against France this summer.

Hooker Torsten van Jaarsveld is a Namibian international who has won 13 caps and played in all four games in the 2015 World Cup including against the All Blacks.

There will certainly be a novelty value to the introduction of two teams from South Africa and they should provide more interest than the Italians who, it has to be said, have been a big disappointment, regressing if anything.

Quite how South African teams will fit into a European competition, be it Champions Cup or Conference, is another matter to be resolved.

But the main thing is not so much the innovation, but the extra money the South Africans will bring to the table.

So, while it’s an odd mix between the northern and southern hemispheres, it’s certain to give added value to a competition that was going nowhere fast.