The conception has been rushed and confused. But there is unmistakable excitement about how the Pro14 has swung from tight Celtic/Italian roots across continents and hemispheres.
Leo Cullen said last week that organisers were making up rules as they go along, a frustrated counter opinion of sorts. But so far there are few of the main actors who have voiced cynicism about South African upstarts encroaching into northern hemisphere land as being anything other than an interesting experiment.
What emerged was that from chaos in the south and Super Rugby dumping out two of its teams, came a reconfigured landscape thousands of miles away. A butterfly beats its wings in Bloemfontein and there’s a typhoon in Ireland.
“When we heard we were axed from Super Rugby there was a lot of doubt about guy’s futures,” says Cheetahs’ captain Niell Jordaan.
“For about two weeks we didn’t know where we were going to go. The guys didn’t know what their futures held. It was tough for the Union to retain players because the guys were going crazy ringing agents telling them they want to leave, wanted to go to another place.
“Luckily Rory (coach Duncan) and the team came in and said there is an opportunity to play in the Pro 14. As soon as that came up it really settled down. It brought a calmness to stick around and wait this thing out.
“As soon as we heard we are in, a lot of the guys decided to stay with the union and give their assurance for the next few years.”
The gestation period was a couple of weeks. But new beginnings bring their own discomforts and Cheetahs are unlikely to field their strongest team until after the Rugby Championship.
With Super Rugby completed and Currie Cup in progress, the squads of both Cheetahs and Southern Kings are compromised until the end of the year. Cheetah's have backrow Uzair Cassiem, loose forward Oupa Mohoje, wing Raymond Rhule and centre Francois Venter on the Springbok squad.
The great unknown is how light they will be travelling to Belfast this weekend to face Ulster in what is already turning into a testy – no bad thing – battle of the hemispheres.
“When our team is at full strength I’m pretty confident we are going to put a competitive team on the field,” says Duncan. “We will be starting off the competition with a couple of niggles from the back end of Super Rugby and the beginning of the Currie Cup. But yeah I’m confident of the players we’ve got.
“They (Springboks) will be made available to us from time to time. You will have seen Venter and Mohoje play. They will be joining us towards the back end of this year.
“From January we will obviously be full strength. Those injuries I spoke about earlier they will be back on their feet as well then. We’ll definitely be fielding a competitive team.”
It is a complex season. The two teams will travel up to the northern winter as the Irish teams flow to the relative warmth of South Africa’s spring and summer as well as to altitude in Bloemfontein.
But there are built in rest periods and when the European Champions Cup in November begins, the South Africans will take some rest time for those weekends. Also, they will not play between December 2nd to January 6th, another extended break.
“We have got to take into consideration that from November we don’t play in the European competition,” says Duncan. “We get a number of the weekends off so the players will have down time.
“When we come back in January, we are on for two weeks or three weeks and then off for two weeks so it’s quite easy. In fact during that period of time I think the guys are going to be quite hungry for rugby.”
It is not ideal but as Duncan points out, the schedule is easier than Super Rugby. It is likely to be the Irish teams that will need to adjust more to the hardship of travel and a changed environment.
“There are a number of benefits to playing in Pro14,” explains Duncan. “Your travel time is slightly less than going to Australia and New Zealand and from there to Japan. Not having the big time zones so not having to fly the night, arrive on a Monday with an 11 hour time difference and adjust by the Saturday.
“Again the thing that makes me most excited is being able to go into a competition and see how we compare to the Northern Hemisphere. It is something we have wanted for a long time and something our support base has asked for a long time. Now they are going to get an opportunity to see it on their doorstep.”
In time says Duncan, more teams might want to join. South Africa, he says, is watching and are already talking about also competing in the European Champions Cup. It is all moving fast. But much depends on the perceived success of this season. The Cheetahs and Kings must be competitive.
“This is what we do for a living,” says Duncan. “This is our brand, our culture. We want to represent that Cheetah brand. We will go out and do what we can to make it work.”
