Cheeky Watson’s tenure as Eastern Province president will be remembered for all the wrong reasons, writes CRAIG LEWIS.
Back in April 2013, then Eastern Province Rugby Union president Cheeky Watson issued a bold declaration. With the Kings having made an encouraging start to their debut Super Rugby season, Watson harboured dreams of grandeur: ‘I believe, without a shadow of a doubt, that five years from now, we’ll be one of the top Super Rugby franchises,’ he gushed. ‘Ten years from now, we’ll be the biggest franchise in world rugby.’
Yet, almost four years later, there was a sad sense of irony as Watson waved goodbye to EP Rugby, after finally stepping down as president of the cash-strapped union that remained under the administration of SA Rugby.
For well over a year, Watson had resisted widespread calls for his resignation and found various means of avoiding repeated drives for a vote of no-confidence to be tabled, as EP Rugby plunged into a financial crisis that left the union and many players in dire straits.
In the end, SA Rugby belatedly and rather reluctantly came to the rescue as it assumed control of the Kings’ Super Rugby franchise, while the EPRU’s affairs were placed under administrative control in April 2016.
Watson was reduced to bit-part player, and while he attempted to suggest in his ‘farewell speech’ that his primary goals in EP rugby had been accomplished, he wasn’t fooling anyone. For whatever credit Watson may take for his role in resurrecting rugby in the Eastern Cape, and contributing to the Kings’ re-entry to Super Rugby, so too must he be held primarily accountable for the shocking regression that has been endured since then.
When Watson made his bold proclamations in 2013, he did so in the context of envisaging how far he felt the franchise could progress if they were afforded the necessary support to thrive – not just survive – for an extended period in Super Rugby.
And yet, in his desperation to see the Eastern Cape region afforded a Super Rugby side, he foolishly accepted structures that saw them feature in the 2013 competition for only a single season.
Compromises and complications were overlooked as the Kings drew impressive home crowds to the imposing Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium and performed beyond expectations (winning three games and drawing one), but still finished bottom of the combined log.
For the briefest of moments, Watson boldly basked in the afterglow of apparent success, but it all simply proved to be a false dawn. As a consequence of inevitably finishing bottom of the South African conference, the Kings were plunged into a promotion-relegation battle with the Lions. They lost, and have been on a downward spiral ever since.
WATCH: Cheeky Watson arrested by Hawks
After the Kings’ relegation, players on loan returned to their unions, while many other top performers were snapped up by other Super Rugby sides. Coaches also moved on, including Alan Solomons, who in 2013 had laid out a three-year vision founded on careful preparation and intelligent recruitment.
After all that good work, a cruel 160 minutes of rugby prompted the Kings’ relegation from Super Rugby and once again reduced them to SA Rugby’s problem child. Watson, as the supposed leader at the helm, continued to fight a losing battle as the Kings’ one step forward in Super Rugby quickly became undone by a sequence of backward steps.
They returned to Super Rugby in 2016 a broken bunch. The financial chaos that reigned in the lead-up to the tournament left the Kings depleted and desperately under-prepared. As a result, they suffered 13 disappointing defeats and conceded a whopping 684 points and 95 tries.
Four years ago, the revival of rugby in the Eastern Cape was the good-news story in South African sport, but as the contrast in Watson’s bold proclamations back then indicated, they have had to once again start from scratch.
Watson has finally walked away, but the damage endured during the latter stages of his tenure will not be easily undone.
– This column first appeared in the April 2017 issue of SA Rugby magazine. Subscribe here.
