Would it work?

Rugby World Cup winning Springbok captain John Smit believes the South African clubs in the PRO14 should be rotated every couple of years. The Cheetahs and the Southern Kings have joined an a new expanded PRO14 competition after being ditched by Super Rugby, but have struggled so far, losing all four of their games.

Smit reckons the contrast in playing styles has resulted in a shaky start, and reckons potentially swapping in and out South African franchises every couple of years my be a something the PRO14 and SARU could look at.

“I’m a big fan of a move north and selfishly I think South Africa has the ability to play on both sides,” Smit said on The Offload on Sky Sports.

“The problem we have is that we’ve got six teams, and we can’t afford six teams. The Kings and the Cheetahs are going to struggle for year one and year two. The unfortunate thing is that they are the two weakest teams and the two teams with the smallest budgets in South Africa.

“I think to make it stronger [South Africa’s presence], we need to make the [South African] teams playing in the PRO14 competitive. The Kings and the Cheetahs will get better and they’ll learn because it’s a very different style.

“The Kings survived in Super Rugby because there is a far different emphasis on set-piece and defence, so here they are going to get exposed.

“But when they bolster up those squads it will be better, and why not possibly rotate those teams? Why should it only be the Cheetahs and Kings that we get to see in the northern hemisphere?

“Let’s give them two seasons and in year two give them a few more players and then we start rotating. One year we have the Kings and Cheetahs and the next the Sharks and Bulls.”