Winning rules in sports branding

Seven years ago the idea was to have regular showdowns between the top three teams in the world. Initially it worked superbly despite criticisms from the Northern countries regarding refs and interpretation of the laws.

In recent years however South Africa have lost comprehensively to England and France at home and Australia have been beaten by England at Twickenham. The gap that once existed between North and South has narrowed substantially.

The question SA rugby has to ask is whether the Tri-Nations still works as a brand and serves the purpose that it was originally intended to do. It still packs in crowds and the desire to win can be overwhelming at times. But exhaustingly long flights, refereeing debacles and citing stupidity count heavily against the Tri-Nations as a concept.

Playing in the same time zone, testing the Boks against powerhouses like England and France on their home grounds and earning Pounds Sterling count seriously in favour of joining the Northern contingent.

Ten days ago the refereeing in the All Blacks victory over the Boks and the ludicrous, one eyed citing of Krige for biting were painful to behold. Last weekend Krige was almost blinded by Ben Tune yet the citing people didn't see it that way.

Is the Tri-Nations something that South Africa still wants to win? You better believe it but is it still worth the effort given the lack of return for SA rugby on every level except pride?

As Andy Capostagno highlighted in his Mail and Guardian article, the Wallabies and All Blacks need SA more than SA needs them. The Wallabies especially have benefited from the Super 12 and Tri-Nations given the lack of local depth in Australia as Union still lags behind Rugby League and Aussie Rules.

A further factor in favour of joining the Europeans (if they wanted us of course) is being able to choose players that ply their trade in Europe. There would also be somewhat less animosity towards the Bok team playing away and of course given the expatriate community here in SA there would be guaranteed full houses at all the games.

How long would this last though and is the weakening of the Tri-Nations as a brand mostly caused by familiarity breeding contempt. Seeing home and away games every year has somewhat dulled the level of these meetings and the same might happen in time with a Seven Nations concept.

The marketing and business decision makers also have to weigh up the absurd demands for success that South Africans place on the heads of their sports people.

The Springbok rugby brand is all about winning, winning and winning. Some of their detractors might add in w(h)ining as well!

It is well nigh impossible for the Boks to sneak the Tri-Nations trophy this year. However, if they take it next year emulating Mallets wonder boys of '98 will the idea of changing towards Europe ever be mentioned again?

The point of the debate really does hinge more on the Boks winning than on marketing and financial comparisons between the Tri-Nations and the idea of a Seven Nations.

Another critical question is, what if England and co. don't want the Boks added to their itinerary? And dare I say it, what if the Boks didn't win a hypothetical Seven Nations at the first or even second attempt?

Would it then be back to the drawing board amid shouts for a return to the Southern Hemisphere fold due to refereeing inconsistencies and wet playing conditions?

The Tri-Nations is not the all conquering brand that it once was but the Boks still desperately want to win it. It may be arrogance to still talk of it as an unofficial world championship but come the world cup in Oz next year who would bet against 3 out of 4 semi finalists coming from this much maligned Southern Hemisphere dog fight?