Talk of the United Rugby Championship moving to a two-division format amid a further expansion appear to be somewhat wide of the mark.
It was the coach of South African side the Cheetahs, Hawies Fourie, who set the cat among the pigeons with his comments. He said there were high hopes his team would be offered a route back to the cross-border competition, with plans to be finalised by the end of the month.
Having been part of the PRO14 for four years from 2017 - reaching the play-offs in their first campaign - they were ditched ahead of this season with the Bulls, Sharks, Lions and Stormers taking over as South Africa’s representatives in the augmented URC. That has left the Cheetahs competing only on the domestic front, in the Currie Cup, where they have won seven out of seven. However, in an interview with Sunday newspaper Rapport, Fourie made some startling claims.
