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Cape Town – In the wake of SARU’s announcement of its Test venues for the 2012 season, WPRFU president, Tobie Titus feels that they have been short-changed.
SARU awarded Cape Town one Springbok Test for the 2012 season, which will be the inaugural Rugby Championships match for the Springboks when they play Argentina on 25 August.
SARU already hinted where the Springboks will be playing their rugby in the new year in the past, but Titus was under the impression that the situation would be taken under review.
“I thought that they would definitely review it. I mean PE – I don’t blame PE, because they don’t award the Tests to themselves – but I just want to have the reasoning behind the decisions,” Titus said in Friday’s Cape Times.
Cape Town never hosted the Springboks in 2011 and the last Test to be held in the city was in June 2010 when the Springboks played against France in a one-off Test at Newlands.
Titus pointed out that rugby’s new hub may have moved away from its traditional citadels.
“PE got the All Black Test this year, and the Sevens tournament, and now an England Test. It is an unfair distribution.
“Cape Town didn’t have a Test this year, and we accepted that. What is the reason that Cape Town didn’t qualify for an Australian or England Test, or the All Blacks?
WPRFU’s reluctance to utilise the purpose-built Cape Town Stadium and the manner in which it dealt with Saracens request to use Cape Town Stadium may have hindered their chances and hurt their case to bring top quality rugby to the people of the Western Cape. Saracens withdrew it's request to play one of it's Heineken Cup matches in Cape Town after the WPRFU decided against using the Cape Town Stadium in favour of Newlands.
“What about the people in Cape Town and the Western Cape? We have the best attendances at our matches. It’s not just about Western Province, but all the people of the Western Cape.”
However, it is commonly understood that most of the sporting public in Cape Town prefer to frequent Cape Town Stadium’s state-of-the-art facilities and infrastructure and that the City of Cape Town are trying to find ways to use the 2010 FIFA World Cup semi-final venue.
With SARU giving other 2010 SWC stadiums such as Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium and the FNB Stadium another taste of Test rugby, it could still be a long, hard and painful battle to satisfy the Capetonian rugby public once again.
Titus however chewed on his sour grapes instead and believes that SARU still had an influencing factor in the outcome.
“Personally I think it could’ve been a better distributed. I just want to express the bitter disappointment of WP.”
SARU awarded Cape Town one Springbok Test for the 2012 season, which will be the inaugural Rugby Championships match for the Springboks when they play Argentina on 25 August.
SARU already hinted where the Springboks will be playing their rugby in the new year in the past, but Titus was under the impression that the situation would be taken under review.
“I thought that they would definitely review it. I mean PE – I don’t blame PE, because they don’t award the Tests to themselves – but I just want to have the reasoning behind the decisions,” Titus said in Friday’s Cape Times.
Cape Town never hosted the Springboks in 2011 and the last Test to be held in the city was in June 2010 when the Springboks played against France in a one-off Test at Newlands.
Titus pointed out that rugby’s new hub may have moved away from its traditional citadels.
“PE got the All Black Test this year, and the Sevens tournament, and now an England Test. It is an unfair distribution.
“Cape Town didn’t have a Test this year, and we accepted that. What is the reason that Cape Town didn’t qualify for an Australian or England Test, or the All Blacks?
WPRFU’s reluctance to utilise the purpose-built Cape Town Stadium and the manner in which it dealt with Saracens request to use Cape Town Stadium may have hindered their chances and hurt their case to bring top quality rugby to the people of the Western Cape. Saracens withdrew it's request to play one of it's Heineken Cup matches in Cape Town after the WPRFU decided against using the Cape Town Stadium in favour of Newlands.
“What about the people in Cape Town and the Western Cape? We have the best attendances at our matches. It’s not just about Western Province, but all the people of the Western Cape.”
However, it is commonly understood that most of the sporting public in Cape Town prefer to frequent Cape Town Stadium’s state-of-the-art facilities and infrastructure and that the City of Cape Town are trying to find ways to use the 2010 FIFA World Cup semi-final venue.
With SARU giving other 2010 SWC stadiums such as Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium and the FNB Stadium another taste of Test rugby, it could still be a long, hard and painful battle to satisfy the Capetonian rugby public once again.
Titus however chewed on his sour grapes instead and believes that SARU still had an influencing factor in the outcome.
“Personally I think it could’ve been a better distributed. I just want to express the bitter disappointment of WP.”
