South Africa’s four biggest rugby teams might have to be content with playing more local derbies before entering the Rainbow Cup next month.

SA Rugby and the ProRugby organisers – who are jointly staging the Europe-based Rainbow Cup – have yet to finalise the fixtures or the travel schedule.

“If I had to stick my neck out I’d say it would probably make more sense for us to play a few local derbies first before travelling to Europe,” said Lions coach Cash van Rooyen.

The Covid-19 situation across the world, and how it has affected travel and forced travellers into quarantine will almost prevent and international travel at this stage.

“Everything is still a little bit vague and uncertain. Our Chief Executive Officer Rudolf Straeuli is busy with those details,” added Van Rooyen.

With so few details about the Rainbow Cup available, the Lions boss said he didn’t even know how big the respective squads could be.

“If I had to guess, I’d think the squad would be in the region of 32 players but that would need to be confirmed,” said Van Rooyen.

“But I think the group will probably not be as big as we got used to in Super Rugby, however, provision will obviously have to be made for Covid protocol.”

Van Rooyen hailed the current Preparation Series as an “ideal opportunity” for the four SA franchises to strengthen their wider groups for the Rainbow Cup – should the competition go ahead.

“We’ve been able to expose some younger players who deserved a chance,” said Van Rooyen.