United Rugby Championship’s South African expansion punt paying off

H ere’s a quiz question as an eventful domestic rugby season enters its closing days: which of the two leagues staging grand finals in Twickenham and Cape Town respectively this weekend has had the better campaign? As the Premiership braces itself for the financial demise of a third club inside nine months, a clear winner is increasingly emerging.

No one would describe the United Rugby Championship as a perfect competition from a logistical perspective, other than for long-haul travel experts specialising in flights to and from southern Africa. But credit where it is due. While tickets for Saturday’s final between Munster and Stormers in Cape Town were relatively inexpensive, all 55,000 available seats were sold within three hours. Given the short notice involved, it has further bolstered the case for South African involvement. The URC took a punt and, for the moment, it is paying off in terms of extra interest and enhanced playing standards.

What, though, about the next five years? No one is pretending the club landscape is currently awash with milk and honey. It feels like a timely moment to consult Martin Anayi, the URC’s chief executive, on what else the future holds and whether rugby’s tectonic plates might yet shift significantly once more.

Having overseen the South African expansion, Anayi is hardly going to diss the rival Premiership as it languishes like a beached whale, awaiting grim confirmation that London Irish are going the same way as Wasps and Worcester. Given he and his staff now share an office near London’s Victoria Station with the Premiership and the Six Nations, he knows rugby’s route to the sunlit uplands will have to be built through cooperation, not conflict.

In the opinion of the former London