The decision to postpone the start of the new United Rugby Championship season in South Africa because of the conflict with the date of the Currie Cup final is unpopular with some of the coaches.
SA Rugby said last week that it had requested that the URC move the Stormers v Bulls game and the Sharks v Lions game to a date in January because these matches were due to be played on September 21, the date of the Currie Cup final.
However, for months, South Africa’s URC teams had been planning for all of these games to take place on the same day, and had made provision for separate squads for the separate events.
SA Rugby said: “The URC is working with Saru, the home teams and host broadcasters to reschedule these fixtures, (and) to update ticket holders and supporters as soon as possible.”
But even if the intentions were good from the governing body, the four South African URC teams had planned months to ensure they would be competitive in both the opening rounds of the URC and in the Currie Cup final.
The Sharks start with three away matches in Europe – against Connacht in Galway (September 28), the Dragons in Newport (October 5) and Benetton in Treviso (October 12).
The Sharks would far rather have had a September 21 URC start against the Lions, as it would have fitted in with their planning – but now this fixture happens next year.
Before the Currie Cup season started, the Sharks made it clear that they would use the first eight rounds of the Currie Cup to give their junior players game time, along with a few older heads like Reniel Hugo and Lionel Cronjé.
The intention was to use rounds nine and 10 as a pre-season for the URC.
Plumtree said that when he had done his planning, they had to factor in the introduction and resting of Springbok players.
“The organisers just have to be better than this,” he said about the schedule change during a Vodacom URC media round table this week.
“If we are going to play a competition through the winter months (in South Africa) and it then impacts the URC, it can impact our planning.
“They just have to get better organised, because we spend a lot of time planning and post-Christmas, we now have another game to add to the calendar.”
Plumtree said they had been happy to play a potential Currie Cup final and the URC round one match on the same day.
“We would have played a younger group, a different group that missed out on the (match) 23 in the Currie Cup final, and carried on with it.
“That is what everyone (the four URC franchises) was happy to do, bar one or two provinces.
“It is a pain to find time for another game later on.”
The Sharks Currie Cup team will take on the Blue Bulls in Saturday’s semi-final at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria (5pm kick-off).