The Cheetahs and Griquas should combine to form a potent squad to replace the Lions in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship, writes Mark Keohane.

The Lions have regressed.

They are simply not good enough and this is ground hog day to their first 15 years in Super Rugby. They won 15 percent of their games over those 15 years, and when they were replaced by the Kings, it was deemed political and not about the rugby. Forget a 15 percent return.

It was the best thing to happen to the Lions as it gave coach Johann Ackerman the time, without the pressure of Super Rugby, to build a squad playing in the Vodacom Cup and Currie Cup.

The Lions then had to play the Kings in a two-legged promotion/relegation match. The Lions won by a six points differential over two legs, losing the second leg at Ellis Park in front of 60 000, as there was no charge for entry.

The Kings and Lions would both be accommodated in what turned out to be the Lions’ most successful period in the history of Super Rugby. They played in three successive finals, hosting one of them, but unfortunately losing all three.

Now it is the all too familiar scenario in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship and the EPCR Challenge Cup, in which the Lions have limped out of competitions.

The Cheetahs, South Africa’s people’s favourite and a globally popular team, missed out on the URC, as only four South African franchises compete in the URC. Griquas and the Pumas also missed out.

The Pumas could make a claim to replace the Lions, but the reality is they would be no better, if no worse, than the Lions. They don’t have the player depth to play in the URC and Challenge Cup, which requires a minimum of 22 matches before any play-offs.

Griquas and the Cheetahs, combined, is the obvious answer, both culturally and geographically. It is less than a two-hour drive between the two cities and it totals 162 kilometres. This makes so much more sense than combining the Cheetahs and Johannesburg-based Lions to form what was then the Cats. That never worked, culturally, from a travel perspective or a winning one.

For the Lions to have a future in the URC, they need to combine with the Bulls geographically. That also won’t happen.

Griquas are a damn difficult team to beat in Kimberley and the Cheetahs have also proved a handful at home in Bloemfontein.

Imagine those two teams, among the top three in the SA Cup, combined to be a force in the URC.

It won’t happen, but that does not mean it should not happen.

Answer this?  Give me the preference of a foreign team? A visit to a packed 10 000 strong Kimberley crowd on a Friday night or one to 3000 die-hards scattered across the 60 000 Ellis Park capacity?

The Stormers, hosts of the first two URC finals, the Bulls, hosts to last year’s final, and the Sharks, winners of last season’s Challenge Cup, have all qualified for this season’s URC play-offs with a round to go in the league. All are in the top five with the Bulls and Sharks guaranteed home quarter-finals.

The Lions, as per their playing CV, are the whipping boys of South African rugby in the URC and Challenge Cup. They inevitably produce three or four super efforts in the league, in matches one thinks they should not win, but they lose so many matches in which they should be cruising to victory, especially at home.

Why guarantee them an entry into the URC when their home crowd average is in single digits, their four-season campaign has never resulted in a top eight position and they have never won more than 50 percent of their matches in a URC season?

I know the status quo won’t change and the Lions will always be there, and be cannon fodder at the back-end of the league, but in this country there is a golden opportunity to combine two fierce and very good provincial rugby neighbours, one from Kimberley and one from Bloemfontein, and make their play-off contenders in the URC, instead of investing in a Johannesburg traditional big four province that is always a play-off pretender.

It won’t happen, which doesn’t mean one can’t make a point that it should happen.

URC Logs:

2021/22

2022/23

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2024/25

Src: keo.co.za