By Martin Gillingham - 25 March 2009 

 In 2004, a bunch of South Africans waving wads of cash and fronted by the jaunty former Springbok captain Bobby Skinstad arrived on our shores telling all ‘n sundry they were preparing to take English rugby by storm and set up a team under the working title London Tribe. 
 
The new club was to be based at the home of Queen’s Park Rangers and the target was to tap into the ready-made fan base within the capital’s fast-growing saffa community. The Tribe was to be a fully professional outfit funded by one of the world’s richest men (another South African) and to accelerate the new club’s rise up “the pyramid” the idea was to buy out a struggling second division side and then rename and relocate it.
 
But within weeks of willing sellers having been found the bid was blocked by Twickers.
 
Totsiens Mr Skinstad.
 
Five years on, those with memories of Skinstad’s conquest will have you believe a similar mission has been embarked on. The business plan is much the same – buy control of a club, stock it with a handful of top-flight South Africans and tap into the corner of Wimbledon that is forever Vereeniging.
 
This time, though, the club is already in the top flight. Saracens are 50 per cent owned by a Johannesburg investment firm with similar interests in two of South Africa’s leading sides, the Bulls and Western Province.
 
In the last three months, Saracens have put their own men in charge - both on and off the field - and told at least 15 of the current squad they won’t be required next season.
 
Cue a backlash.
 
The current coach, former Wallabies boss Eddie Jones, has left while the newspapers have had a field day with tales of jumbo-loads of Springboks being parachuted in and plans to relocate one of England’s oldest clubs to south-west London. As for the new coach – well, it would be safe to say he is not the most loved.
 
The new director of rugby is Brendan Venter who was once described by World Cup-winning scrum-half Matt Dawson as “one of the most hypocritical, cynical, dirty and underhand players I have ever played against. I can't stand anything about him. He is a bad loser and a bad winner, an all-round horrible person.”
 
The new chief executive is Edward Griffiths who, I can assure Matt, is a rather more virtuous and decent fellow. For starters, despite being referred to as a “South African” by normally authoritative media sources in this country, he is, in fact, English. And that’s not a bad start where this tale is concerned.
 
Griffiths does, though, boast a stunning cv from his time spent in South Africa during the Eighties and Nineties. He’s been the sports editor of the country’s leading newspaper; chief executive of South African rugby; head of sport at the national broadcaster; biographer of some of the country’s most famous rugby legends; and even a key player in South Africa’s bid to host the 2010 football World Cup. He’s Barwick, Baron, Coe, Lee and Slater all rolled into one.
 
Griffiths was the spinmeister behind the Springboks’ successful 1995 Rugby World Cup campaign. Joel Stransky’s drop goal may have been the stroke of genius that won the cup on the pitch but Griffiths’ slogan “One Team, One Country” scored a fair few points off it. If ever a game of footie has transcended sport, the Ellis Park final was it.
 
Over the past few weeks Griffiths has been channeling his PR skills at turning round the headlines sparked by the upheaval at Vicarage Road. And in time he will be judged by his claims that Saracens is not in the midst of the sort of South African takeover that will see Afrikaans become the most prevalent mother tongue in the dressing room.
 
At the root of the backlash and sensational headlines lies an ugly English parochialism. The message is clear: we don’t care much for South Africans and certainly don’t want you meddling around with our Premiership.
 
To their detractors, Saracens is mutating into the London Tribe. The truth is that they are not. More than any other team in England over the past decade Sarries have demonstrated that foreign talent alone doesn’t guarantee success.
 
Yet Saracens need to change. They are currently mid-table mediocrity, haven’t won anything for years, and stand to lose £3 million this season.
 
So what if Sarries’ Springbok contingent may move into double figures? They are, after all, the world champions and gave England a mighty hump as recently as the Autumn. And what with current England Test players like James Haskell, Riki Flutey and Tom Palmer fleeing for France ahead of the new season, perhaps we need a bit of extra class in the Premiership.
 
Martin Gillingham represented Great Britain in the 1984 Olympic Games and 1987 World Championships at the 400 metres hurdles. Since retiring from the track he spent 12 years in South Africa where he was a radio talk show presenter and writer for a Sunday newspaper. He returned to the UK in 2003 and can now be heard commentating on athletics for Eurosport as well as rugby for Sky Sports, ITV and Setanta.

 

 

Comments
The English are probably fed up keep beating by the Boks without
the same thing happening to them in the Premiership!
By keyna rivera rodriguez, Durban
25 March 2009 at 13:44pm

Hi Martin,

I enjoy your blogs - always very informative.

I just wondered what you thought about rugby sevens being in the
Olympics?

Tom Price
By Tom Price, Auckland
25 March 2009 at 16:25pm

Oh what fun it is to see the English sweating...They deserve
everything they get.
By Cape Town rugby fan
26 March 2009 at 03:27am