Prinsloo not ruffled by Hoskins threat
22 Feb 2006
Rumours that the appointment of Oregan Hoskins as Saru President will lead to a widespread clean out at SA Rugby have been rubbished by CEO Johan Prinsloo.
Prinsloo was responding to an article in the Cape Argus in which Dale Granger writes that Hoskins’ appointment will mean Prinsloo’s axing.
“Among those in the firing line could be SA Rugby union chief executive Johan Prinsloo and Cliffie Booysen, general manager in the office of the president,” writes Granger. “Springbok manager Arthrob Petersen would almost certainly face the axe, while even Springbok coach Jake White, in spite of his unbeaten home record and South Africa’s No 2 world ranking, may not feel secure.
“On Tuesday Hoskins refused to name individuals who may be in the firing line, but he did say SA Rugby would face an audited performance review if he was elected.”
Speaking to keo.co.za, Prinsloo responded with angst to the allegations.
“I can’t believe those comments. I don’t believe Regan would say anything like that, either on or off the record, to anyone,” Prinsloo said. “There were times when those sort of rumours concerned me, but no longer. I know what’s happening in SA Rugby and I have a job to do. Anyway I don’t believe Regan said anything that suggests that. Hiring and firing at any organisation is dependant on labour law. He as a legal man would know this.”
Prinsloo’s sense of security may be misleading, however. Early in campaigning Hoskins described Prinsloo as a “weak CEO” to keo.co.za.
Meanwhile Prinsloo also dismissed a report in the Daily News today that claimed the sponsors of SA Rugby – including Vodacom and Sasol – held a meeting after which they threatened to withdraw their sponsorships should Brian van Rooyen be re-elected as president.
“Absolutely nothing like that happened. I contacted all the sponsors concerned, as well as board member Dr Ali Bacher, and all parties denied any meeting of the sort. It’s a complete fabrication, and I have statements backing that up in writing.”

27 Comments
22 Feb 2006, 16:36 pm
Circus clowns.
22 Feb 2006, 16:37 pm
more fighting, will it ever stop.
22 Feb 2006, 16:39 pm
This one says this that one says that.Stuff all these rumours.Lets wait for the votes and the actions taken thereafter.Nice evening to you gents.
22 Feb 2006, 16:42 pm
childish dirty tricks again – looks to be a classic case of lets leak a juicy tidbit & then deny vehemently to make the candidate out to be a fool …. the media really should try to clean up its act ….
22 Feb 2006, 16:44 pm
What the fu&K , another year of fighting and bullshitting
22 Feb 2006, 16:44 pm
Keo for President !!
22 Feb 2006, 16:50 pm
only stuff more hilarious that the rugga reporting are the messages posted on the friendsofjz site .. really should do yourselves a favour and have a read … bwahahaha
22 Feb 2006, 16:52 pm
Um Johan
The bad news is that a CEO falls under a different law to the Labour Relations Act.
You should be a bit more concerned about your own position boet.
On the rest he is right, but surely one would have expected any modern business organisation to have a performance appraisal system in place where people are judged on a balanced scorecard for performance with penalties and incentives in…….
Oh, I forgot….
We’re talking SARU here.
22 Feb 2006, 16:53 pm
Andre – if the Cape Town Dwarf Rights Movement needs him, he’ll be there!
22 Feb 2006, 17:00 pm
It doesn’t matter who gets fired, they are all incompetent buffoons.
22 Feb 2006, 17:37 pm
and I suppose that Hoskins will then appoint Brian van Zyl as CEO of SARU, or even his big chum Straueli as a Commercial Director, actually calling the shots from behind the scenes……..
22 Feb 2006, 17:42 pm
How about this on the Superrugby website:
Confusion reigns about the rugby match planned between the Springboks and a world team at Ellis Park on June 3.
The International Rugby Board may not give permission for this match, but SA Rugby’s CEO, Johan Prinsloo, believes permission is not necessary because the match will not have Test status.
“It’s not a case of asking permission. We have to inform them (the IRB) and I’ve done that verbally and I’ve also sent a letter,” Prinsloo said.
The Golden Lions Rugby Union announced on Tuesday that the Springboks will play a world team in a warm-up match, but the IRB’s CEO, Mike Miller, says the match has not been approved.
Miller says SA Rugby sent an application to the IRB, but it was withdrawn.
The proceeds of the match would have gone to the Players’ Association, Sarpa, but the IRB raised objections because some agents would also have benefited.
Last year the Springboks were supposed to play against a similar invitation team at Twickenham, but the IRB scuppered these plans.
The Lions said in a statement on Tuesday that players of the cailbre of Carlos Spencer, Justin Marshall and Bruce Reihana, as well as coach Bob Dwyer have been approached.
The Lions’ president, Jannie Ferreira, said the match planned for Ellis Park was not being organised by the Lions.
“It is not the Lions’ match and we haven’t been included in the arrangements. The match is being organised by Sarpa and any request or notification to the IRB should be channelled through SA Rugby,” Ferreira said.
Sarpa’s chairperson, Hennie le Roux, said permission for the match had to be sought by SA Rugby and that his organisation could not do it: “After all the match is being played under the auspices of SA Rugby.”
22 Feb 2006, 17:53 pm
That’s right Jannie Ferreira, pass the buck – why did your union announce the match if you are not organising it??? Blame SA Rugby , BVR and bad corporate governance (why not go the whole hog while you at it??)
How would the sponsors feel if Straueli was appointed in some capacity at SA Rugby(by Hoskins or the Sharks if Hoskins becomes President) It was not too long ago that Straueli brought the Springbok name and SA Rugby to the lowest it’s ever been with Camp Staaldraad and his archaiac ways.
22 Feb 2006, 17:57 pm
I have a bad feeling he will be back at SARU HQ when Hoskins gets the nod as president, he might even be given the job as Director of Rugby…..
22 Feb 2006, 18:19 pm
Hi Londonbloubul- I can’t see that Sraeuli can actually be a possibility , but at SARU hey anything can happen. It will certainly put Springbok rugby in a bad light and back 10 years!!!
PLEASE tell me you not REALLY a Bulls fan??? I was just getting to like you…..
22 Feb 2006, 18:48 pm
jonnow – apologies for removing your comment, but we have an agreement with N24. It will be published tomorrow at 6am
Cheers
22 Feb 2006, 18:49 pm
Princess,
I am a Bulls fan, and very proud of it….grew up across the road from Loftus….
22 Feb 2006, 20:10 pm
Ig
No problem, sorry to have jumped the gun.
I must say though that I enjoyed the article, and from the comments on the SF most of the Kiwis did too.
22 Feb 2006, 20:53 pm
I have read the articles on this site for the last few days (and other sites) and I sometimes wonder who plays judge with the news? Keo & gang, can you please just write an article to put the facts down in point form? I am sure that (like us all) both candidates have their own agendas and none of them are transparent for us to currently review. We know what BvR agenda & under his presendancy, well, … this is well discussed. OH is trying to be open and knows that he will be judged on bringing SARFU back to a respectable org.
I am sure that he is aware of us all watching, so he isn’t going to make sweeping moves like fire JW! Please, those who think this will happen are really short sighted. JW knows that he will be judged on the next WC. I am sure he has plenty of sleepness nights about it … and so he should! (“,)
Good luck Jake, u gonna need it!
But, back to my point, like all orgs (even SARFU) the rot starts at the top. Put a new man in, he has 2 years to pull it straight. As for the org structure, put him in power and lets see what he does, we already can see how directionless BvR has been and will remain. Those of you who feel that things will get better under BvR, think again. The mess will continue until he is dethrowned!
Lets hope that the change in guard is a good one! And Oregan, we will be watching you, always! (“,)
P.S. Will I am on my high horse, will someone please tell Simon to actually use a header for his submittals/blogs that actually have something to do with the story! I am tired of reading a different article to what the title suggests. I am not a journo but its looks unprofessional!
22 Feb 2006, 23:02 pm
Londonbloubul………
I am a staunch Cats fan , been really hard the last few years but I am ever hopefull. Each year I have renewed hope that this will be our year!
23 Feb 2006, 00:27 am
Princess,
I too am a staunch Cats fan, the worse they get the stauncher. Isn’t it strange how the pain binds us to our commitment; as if when finally the Cats (probably not under Ludeke) get it together, it will be the more blissful, like some bad under-dog movie.
As for the article, I don’t get it. Did Hoskins actually say anyone was going to be fired or did Granger simply infer this from OH’s comment that SA rugby would face an audit? If the latter, then what was it that Johan Prinsloo was responding to when he said he doubted Hoskins could have said it?
23 Feb 2006, 00:43 am
Have no idea…the closer the election gets the more the media are hyping it up and playing the 2 off against each other. The article by Granger said that OH said there would be an audit…but they seem to be surmising who will go..Johan prinsloo..Cliffie Booysen,Petersen and even Jake White. Somehow I doubt that will happen.
Roll on Friday , lets get the new guy elected and hopefully get on with the running of rugby (at least till the next election…….when the same will be said and the same media will be hyping up 2 new guys and so on and so on…..)
23 Feb 2006, 00:57 am
Yeah, I guess you are right; there will be no delving for truth in this media-made quagmire.
As far as I can figure, this may be how it happend:
Hoskins to Granger – There will be an audit.
Granger to Prinsloo – Hoskins says he is gonna fire your ***, how do you feel about it?
Prinsloo to Granger – I don’t thiink Hoskins would’ve said that.
Granger in article – Prinsloo defies Hoskins!
Or maybe that isn’t how it happened at all. It sucks following these developments when the news is so far from transparrent.
I doubt wether after friday anyone will just get on with it, there is too much interest in damning whoever takes over – after all journos have to eat, and if journo x doesn’t write this **** then journo y will get in there. This stuff is worse than French politics.
23 Feb 2006, 01:06 am
Tell me about it …. and the 14 Provincial Presidents are all just worried about what they are entitled to…. can they go overseas, to which test match,fighting the relegation …..and no one seems to have rugby interests at heart!
23 Feb 2006, 08:36 am
I’m sure we can pick a better bunch of people to run SARU right here on this blog from all the muppits that log on each day. This infighting, backstabbing etc make us the laughing stock of the rugby world.
The worst is that we just shut up and hope the Boks do well. We are so conditioned now that our S12\14 teams lose that there isn’t a outcry anymore.
People who love rugby should be in charge. People that know rugby and bussiness. I’ll join Oranje Orakel in shouting “Down with th clown” and “A better game for all”. I’ll even add this one “Down with the circus!”
Cheers
23 Feb 2006, 11:13 am
Princess,
I know how you feel, when the bulls had those bad years before Heyneke took over….I think Ludeke should make way for Eugene Eloff
23 Feb 2006, 20:44 pm
Loffie is a great Coach………..but where is he now? You righ , he should take over from Ludicrous, sorry Ludecke
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