Saracens to stage HEC game in Cape Town?

michelledoh

Seems a bit strange to me!

The ground-breaking move has yet to receive official sanction from the tournament organisers, the European Rugby Cup, the Rugby Football Union or the South African Rugby Fooball Union, but it is understood that none of the three bodies is opposed to the concept.

Saracens are due to face Biarritz, who lost the 2010 Heineken Cup final to Toulouse, at Vicarage Road on the weekend of Jan 13-15.

However, it is understood the RFU has received a request to stage the game in the South African city, either at Newlands stadium or the Cape Town Stadium, which was constructed for the 2010 football World Cup.

Edward Griffiths, the Saracens chief executive, confirmed last night that the north London club were exploring the options to stage the game in Cape Town, having already committed to hosting their Heineken Cup match against the Ospreys in December at Wembley.

“The idea of playing one of our Heineken Cup matches in Cape Town has been mooted, and it is appealing in many ways, but our first obligation is to protect the interests of our supporters,” Griffiths said. “We have made contact with ERC, the RFU and SA Rugby, but we are primarily engaged with our season-ticket holders to explore how, either by compensation or other means, we can make this work for them.

On a broader level we are a genetically innovative club and, with the permission of ERC and the respective unions, the sponsors and other stakeholders, we would be eager to showcase the strengths of top-class European rugby on a grand southern hemisphere stage. It’s an increasingly small world.” Saracens, who earlier this month announced the signing of Springboks captain John Smit, will be meeting with representatives from ERC, the RFU and the SARFU in the next three weeks, with a decision expected within a month.
Biarritz are also understood to be keen on the proposal.
Saracens also hope to satisfy the tournament broadcasters, Sky Sports, by staging the game at 7pm local time, 6pm UK time, on Jan 14.
Saracens are optimistic the plan will be given the green light by the RFU board after Wasps were granted permission last season to play their LV Cup match against Harlequins in Abu Dhabi.
Saracens’ Heineken Cup match against Clermont Auvergne at Vicarage Road last season attracted a crowd of less than 6,000, while the projected attendance for a match stage in Cape Town is over 30,000.
Meanwhile, England’s top clubs have stated that they hope to be consulted by candidates standing for the vacant position of RFU chairman in the wake of the fallout following the sacking of John Steele as chief executive.
The clubs completed a two-day conference in Birmingham yesterday and Premiership Rugby chairman Quentin Smith said they were “ready to help” following the events at Twickenham.
“We would expect prospective candidates for the RFU chairman position to meet with us to discuss the issues for the professional game. We shall now channel this through the Professional Game Board,” Smith said.

Otacon

Half the team comes from South Africa so I guess they're trying to get an actual home game! :pac:

razorblunt

What next London Irish trying to hold a game in London? Madness I tells ya!

justsomebloke

I can't really see anyone really being against this per se (well except both sets of fans), however I can see everyone asking WHY would they want to do it?

Sure rather then Leinster playing Munster in the Aviva we should move it to Paris and show them how good the Pro12 really is

Legion2008

Well I think the answer is that they only got 6000 fans last year against Clermont ... so the home support isn't there in numbers ....

Though it's hard to see a financial gain out of this as the ticket prices in South Africa would be much lower than the UK, they'd sell a few more shirts prehaps ...

JustinDee

razorblunt wrote: »

What next London Irish trying to hold a game in London? Madness I tells ya!

Lol
Wasps too.

JustinDee

Joe the Santa wrote: »

I can't really see anyone really being against this per se (well except both sets of fans), however I can see everyone asking WHY would they want to do it?

Sure rather then Leinster playing Munster in the Aviva we should move it to Paris and show them how good the Pro12 really is

Its ridiculous. Mr Griffiths should be reminded that the 'E' in ERC actually stands for European.
Another effect of privately-owned clubs/playthings: the dumb idea.

who the fug

razorblunt wrote: »

What next London Irish trying to hold a game in London? Madness I tells ya!

We do every other monday night during the season .


Sarry fans are not happy by all acounts

thomond2006

An LV Cup match (Wasps played Quins in Abu Dhabi last season) which is low key anyway would be fine but a Heineken Cup match? Don't think it will be allowed.

theboss80

Posted in HC thread already

justsomebloke

thomond2006 wrote: »

An LV Cup match (Wasps played Quins in Abu Dhabi last season) which is low key anyway would be fine but a Heineken Cup match? Don't think it will be allowed.

Even if it was Abu Dhabi I would see the reasoning as they aren't a Rugby nation so it could be used as a show peace event to help grow the sport, however bringing it to a country that already has top flight rugby of it's own is jsut baffling.

CatFromHue

well the average temp in cape town in jan is 26 deg. that's a big difference than what the players will be playing in usually. in the time frame they'll have they won't be able to adapt.
the average flight time between london and cape town is 12 hours. that's two whole days travelling involved so.
a reason for the crusaders v stormers game being moved to london was because the crusaders have no home ground this season and there is a very big ex pat community of kiwis and saffers in london. neither of these apply to this game. actually i cant see why many sa fans would want to go see this.
this is a silly idea on many fronts.

Tomtom364

I wonder how long we have to wait before the sarries owner tries to get sarries outta the ERC and into the Super 15... :pac:

bamboozle

i can see why Super 15 games have been played in the NH before due to the number of ex-pats living in the UK and poor crowds in the SH but i dont see much logic for a HC game to be staged in SA

David900

Tomtom364 wrote: »

I wonder how long we have to wait before the sarries owner tries to get sarries outta the ERC and into the Super 15... :pac:

Haha you could be right here. Kind of reminds me of that episode of the Simpson where they want to move the Springfield Isotopes and Homer goes on hunger strike. Maybe this is the equivalent of that as they want to move the 'franchise'. This could be testing the waters as such.

Corsendonk

Joe the Santa wrote: »

Even if it was Abu Dhabi I would see the reasoning as they aren't a Rugby nation so it could be used as a show peace event to help grow the sport, however bringing it to a country that already has top flight rugby of it's own is jsut baffling.

The Arch Troll that writes for the Sunday Times was pushing the idea of playing the H cup Final in European cities such as Rome, Madrid, Berlin etc earlier in the year to do what you say above.

durkadurka

Yeah the noucamp or San siro idea is very appealing but the Saracens thing sounds ridiculous to me