Sanzar must call SA’s boycott bluff
12 Feb 2012
South Africa’s five existing Super Rugby franchises have threatened to pull out of the competition in 2013 – if six South African teams are not accommodated. MARK KEOHANE says Sanzar needs to call their bluff.
Once again the tail is wagging the dog. Once again Saru’s leadership is being shown as pathetic and without bite.
Oregan Hoskins, the greatest of disappointments as a leader, needs to stand tall and dismiss the threats of the five South African regions. He won’t and the regions will continue to hold the national governing body to ransom, when it should be the other way around.
Rapport newspaper’s sports editor Rudolph Lake wrote of a meeting between the five regions, a meeting sanctioned by Saru, in which they would look at solutions to the Kings’ entry into Super Rugby in 2013. The same regions, whose leadership had unanimously accepted the Kings’ 2013 entry more than two years ago, now feel the need for crisis meetings, in which the only solution is to accommodate six South African teams.
Now comes the threat that all five South African regions will boycott the tournament if they don’t get their own way. Any proper leadership will tell you they have no option but to play in the tournament. If they don’t they are in breach of existing contracts, they lose their primary source of income and they won’t have a region, let alone players.
It makes for a dramatic headline. It sounds spectacular. But there is no way they should even be in a position to make such a demand.
Sanzar’s board members should be laughing at South African administrators who are nothing but an embarrassment with their insular agendas and motives.
On Sunday the City Press sports section was led by an expose of the Golden Lions Rugby Union’s finances. Leading Media24 investigative journalist Jacques Pauw reveals that the Lions liabilities exceeded assets by R46.6 million in 2007, by R49.6 million in 2008, by R63 million in 2009 and by R73 million in 2010. It shows the Lions owing R38 million to Absa for an overdraft facility, R18 million to businessmen Robert Gumede and Ivor Ichikowitz, R14 million to Saru, R5 million to former coach Dick Muir, R6.8 million to the Leopards Rugby Union and R4.5 million to the Pumas Rugby Union.
Who are the Lions to threaten a boycott of the tournament?
Hoskins confirmed to Lake he had received a letter from the five regions with the threat of the boycott and that he was ‘shocked and disappointed’.
Come on, Regan. Show some leadership. You can’t always be shocked and disappointed. Sending the letter to the other nine provinces for input is also not about leadership, but more denial.
If the five ‘traditional’ provinces don’t want to play in Super Rugby, then kick them out and play the next five. Forget about provincial identities and focus on the players. The players will move to where the playing opportunity is.
The five traditional unions, among them the cash-strapped Lions and Cheetahs, have no position of strength when it comes to Super Rugby participation.
The bluff to force an expansion of Super Rugby from 15 to 16 teams and six South African teams should not be tolerated within Sanzar. If SA does not play ball, as per the agreed Sanzar deal and broadcasting arrangement, then Sanzar and the broadcasters should sue Saru and the respective regions/provinces.
What we are seeing here is how administrators in South African rugby have always conducted their business, be it by bullying or bluffing. The threat to withdraw should be a threat from Sanzar to kick them out.
Hoskins, in his time as Saru president, has never made a hard decision to show he is in charge. He has failed transformation and failed at everything that requires a decision and potential confrontation.
Don’t expect this situation to be any different, although I’d like to think those wizards in New Zealand and Australia have slightly more business acumen and a bigger set of balls to tell South Africa’s traditional five to F-off and stop their shenanigans.
Saru should have dealt with who falls out long before they gave the Kings the OK to play in the 2013 tournament. If it is on historical performance then the Lions must go. And if you look at their finances they should have gone ages ago.
307 Comments
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12 Feb 2012, 15:46 pm
@Rage-41:
Absolutely, this whole **** up starts with SA Rugby and given they are now making it the unions and SANZAR’s problems trying to find a solution smacks of amateurism of the highest order.
12 Feb 2012, 15:48 pm
Keohane’s article is shocking.
It is so clearly agenda driven that it beggars belief.
It is SARU who is in the wrong for forcing a 6th, undeserving franchise into the mix. The existing franchises are the ones who are protecting their contracts, financial viability and existing commitments.
They have been FORCED into this unsavoury situation by SARU and its slavish obedience to the politicians behind the Kings circus.
Mark quite casually suggests destroying all 5 existing franchises if that is what it takes to get the Kings and his client Luke Watson into the big league. He has no regard for the 90% of SA fans who support the existing franchises, and could apparently not give two hoots if those 90% of fans get a raw deal out of this mess, so long as his precious Kings get their bit of the pie.
Keohane, you are just a mecenary, with no principles whatsoever. But then, we all have known that for a long long time, haven’t we.
12 Feb 2012, 15:49 pm
@jondood-47:
The best record does not only equate to titles.
Records include overall places.
BTW – The Super 10 was pre-SANZAR. But fair enough if you count that era
12 Feb 2012, 15:50 pm
I’m still amazed that all 14 unions agreed to the Kings inclusion into Superrugby. Did they vote for their inclusion into a 16 team competition or did they vote for them to replace the last placed team. What are the details of this vote.
Knowing this will clear up all the speculation. My guess is that they voted to include the Kings into a 16 team competition, but SANZAR kicked that idea into touch … and now we have big kak in little SARU.
12 Feb 2012, 15:53 pm
This is the problem when you are a journalist who tries their hand at athlete representation.
Your credibility disappears as fast as capo’s parole.
12 Feb 2012, 15:57 pm
A scorpion is loose. The poison is in the tail
Take this scenario:
Bulls, Lions, WP, Cheetahs and Sharks break away from SARU. They invite Griquas to join them.
By next year the terrestrial TV network in SA will be up and running. SABC then becomes the broadcaster. The get new sponsors for a new competition.
This is indeed a possibility.
Before this will happen SARU will be forced to can the Kings. SARU is in no position to call a bluff.
12 Feb 2012, 16:03 pm
@PissAnt-36: I am not proposing that the franchises go it alone or that it would be a viable option but I am saying it is naive to discount the financial and contractual/legal clout that the current franchises have.
If this situation is allowed to spiral out of control (and it is nearly there) it can only harm SA rugby and I’m sure that not of the franchises would deliberately do that. In fact the only “franchise” that is intent on ruining anyone is the Kings, who expect to be accommodated at the expense of one of the other stronger franchises.
SARU brought this whole situation on us by not addressing the Kings participation pro-actively and now they expect one of the current franchises to volunteer to commit suicide.
12 Feb 2012, 16:07 pm
@Baylion-29: I like what you wrote specially if all of what you say is correct.
Ayway SARU fecked up humongously and the should take responsibility for it, I actually still find it incredible they said what they did without having a plan in place and the telling the unions to sort it out. ….GOBSMACKINGLY FREAKY..
For the Kings i can understand it even if i dont think they are deserving, they want a share of the tv rights money, the sooner the better.
12 Feb 2012, 16:10 pm
Saru should run an ipl franchise system in sa.seeing that the licenses expires at the end of this season they basically have the ball in their court here.make the licenses available to big business.they might want to keep full control over the kings license in terms of transformation purposes.I believe that bog business will jump at the opportunity to hold and operate a rugby franchise.gumede might get one and call it the gauteng bluebirds.the western cape gigolos,the kwazulu Zulu warriors and the freestate ox wagons have a nice ring to it also.
12 Feb 2012, 16:12 pm
@Biscuit-49: What does confuse me is that all unions unanimously approved the addition of the Kings to Superrugby? Why would they do that given that being out would condemn the relegated side to trouble?
Can we see
a) The letter?
b) The unanimous motion that the unions agreed to (including any pre-conditions)
…….I have wondering about that as well, doesnt make sense.
12 Feb 2012, 16:18 pm
Here we go again, the Keo PR machine churning out the media statements, attempting to set the media agenda., for their clients Luke Watson and the useless Kings, the corrupt Eastern Cape.
It will all come to nought, Keo, as the rest of the world, the real world, could not gvive a feck about:
1. the racist Watson family, who, incidentally, have milked the indigenous population dry over many decades and cashed in on them big time
2. the ANC’s social engineering (read racism, equal to Verwoerd’s social engineering)
3. the ANC and SARU’s desire for a team in their supposed heartland.
There’s a real world out there, guys, where merit determines who does what in society. You can play your Mickey Mouse ‘quota’ games within South Africa but remember, beyond your borders, the real world does not give a flaming feck for your racist social engineering.
Which means the Kings are dead. Long decay the Kings…
12 Feb 2012, 16:19 pm
What absolute arrogant, bumbling, ‘verkrampte’, idiots but is that really so unexpected when one considers the shamed and shameful history of S.A. rugby?
This action, plus your so very amusing questions you asked so disingenuously Friday about your SARU, just once again proves how much you all suffer from a cerebral neuropathy which leads to this type of thinking emanating from your numbed ‘brains’.
However, do not look too far for the link as it is all there in the frankness of so much history.
Look at the origins of the ilk of the founders and more of the Afrikaner Broederbond with people such as the Kloppers, Naudes, Du Plessis, V.D. Merwes plus the Malans, Vorsters, Verwoerds, Anton Ruperts, De Beers etc. and compare that to the people that overwhelmingly dominate Saru with names like Versters, Van Zyls, De Klerks, Van Graans etc. all from most of those 16 franchises/unions that make up your Saru.How can you still wonder about such numbed thinking then?
True to form you will be blaming the lone, pale but very puppet-on-a-string Hoskens who probably feels hard done by because he has too much Griqua genes in his makke-up.
12 Feb 2012, 16:27 pm
Are you a lions supporter Joe maher?might just explain the complete tripe you have just posted.
12 Feb 2012, 16:34 pm
It will be stunningly but mostly hilariously ironical if S.A. rugby is again kicked out of international rugby as in reality we do have neo-racist sport still prevailing on the southern tip of the continent of Africa.
What we have witnessed and experienced there since 1994 can not ever be deemed non-racism in sport, surely?
12 Feb 2012, 16:40 pm
@Baylion-57:
The reason franchises have any financial clout is because of their Super Rugby participation, which they do not own.
I have no doubt the threats of litigation will only intensify in the days and weeks to come, but the bottom line is quite simple – franchises cannot bargain with something that is not theirs (franchise licenses).
Agreements with sponsors is between franchises and sponsors, it has nothing to do with SA Rugby. Franchises made these promises to sponsors (exposure in Super Rugby) knowing full well the current license agreement will run its course at the end of 2012.
By the end of this year SA Rugby can basically do whatever they please in setting out the criteria for awarding the licenses in future.
12 Feb 2012, 16:41 pm
How can a union be in debt to the tune of nearly 90 million?
12 Feb 2012, 16:42 pm
And with those SARU shamateur political clowns running the local circus does anyone seriously believe teams from SA are welcomed with open arms in any European competition whatsoever should they break away from current SANZAR alliance?
Okes must be deluded more than I ever thought.
12 Feb 2012, 16:43 pm
@PissAnt-65:
You miss the point.
Do you think this circus is in the interest of the 90% of SA rugby fans who are supporters of the current 5 franchises?
12 Feb 2012, 16:46 pm
Well said pissant.it seems most bloggers on here doesn’t understand the franchise license concept.
12 Feb 2012, 16:52 pm
@Nils-67:
Afrikaner history is just one huge emotional DELUSION, from its inception and eventually to its grave.
It is ever so often exposed to the rest of the cerebral world in acts of this nature, if not in the now well-known and documentd shameful atrocities.
12 Feb 2012, 16:52 pm
Its like when a company is retrenching and instead of using acceptable practices (LIFO,FIFO,etc) to determine who stays and who goes,just leaves the decision up to the self-same affected personnel.This points to poor leadership,lack of accountability,a gravy-train mindset….this would’ve been very funny if it wasn’t so very sad…I’m trying to get a positive view on the matter but someone,somewhere (read Cheetahs or Lions) is going have to take the fall for the Kings…
12 Feb 2012, 16:53 pm
They will just have to become supporters of the new franchises ….if it comes down to that.players will follow the money trail at the end of the day.imagine an ipl auction style event at the end of the 2012 super rugby edition?it will be brilliant.
12 Feb 2012, 16:55 pm
The franchise lisence might not belong to the franchises but the 5 big unions having those lisences do bring in a lot of money for SARU because of all the support that these unions get. ( not sure how saru gets paid for these but surely giving them to well supported strong unions is worth more cash than giving a lisence to a weak poor union). Therefore it makes sense not to take a franchise away from the current holders but to get the Kings up to speed and include them after 2015 when the current format can be changed.
12 Feb 2012, 16:57 pm
What would gouger burger’s base price be?
12 Feb 2012, 16:57 pm
@PissAnt-65: Not quite sure I agree with you PA. The reason the franchises have financial clout is because they have a following. The sponsors follow the supporters and right now I’m quite convinced the fans don’t give a hoot about SARU and SANZAR given their recent performances. I would luv to see the ECAPE have their own super rugby franchise however at the expense of which franchise? All the current franchises have earned the right to be there and their recent performances (last year in particular) have substantiated that right.
12 Feb 2012, 16:58 pm
@Joe Maher-61:
Don’t talk rubbish. Trying to make this a political issue is to just ignore the facts.
The Unions in the Kings franchise are somehow expected to compete with provinces that can attract players due purely to the fact that they can offer S15 opportunities. Is that the argument? If the boot was on the other foot and the Lions, Cheetahs, Bulls etc were left out of a franchise, how many top or emerging players do you think would be willing to sign for them at provincial level?
When the 6 Franchises made their application they were judged on a number of factors, of which only one was the success or strength of the underpinning union. Gate numbers was one as were the financial projections and viability. In this respect, the Lions have failed miserably at fulfilling their commitments.
That apart, the S14/15 is a regional not a provincial competition, and in order for SARU to honour its own constitution, its role is to develop the growth of the game in SA, not just fill the coffers of certain unions or polish their egos, and leaving the region with the largest number of registered rugby players without a franchise is contrary to its aims.
One of the major mistakes SARU made was in allowing the unions to select their own partners; the second was in allowing some of the major unions to brand the franchise almost identically to their own.
12 Feb 2012, 17:01 pm
@bananaboy-75:
Partnering the Lions union with the Bulls as a new regional franchise wouldn’t be dropping anyone out of the competition.
12 Feb 2012, 17:02 pm
@David-76:
If I recall correctly, Heyneke Meyer is on record about 5 years ago stating that the performance of the Super Rugby franchise is boosted significantly if continuity can be built up from that same team participating in the Currie Cup.
Essentially saying that Super Rugby is a provincial and not a regional competition in all but name. The “region” is a myth. The teams are just the Sharks, Bulls, WP playing in a different competition.
The teams that can compete for play-off positions, that is.
12 Feb 2012, 17:04 pm
Read this and thought of you Elliott…
They call the developing world the lazy man’s purview; the sluggishly slothful and languorous prefecture. In this realm people are sleepy, dreamy, torpid, lethargic, and therefore indigent – totally penniless, needy, destitute, poverty-stricken, disfavoured and impoverished.
In this demesne, as they call it, there are hardly any discoveries, inventions and innovations.
Africa is the trailblazer. Some still call it “the dark continent” for the light that flickers under the tunnel is not that of hope, but an approaching train. And because countless keep waiting in the way of the train, millions die and many more remain decapitated by the day.
“It’s amazing how you all sit there and watch yourselves die,” the man next to me said.
“Get up and do something about it.”
Brawny, fully bald-headed, with intense, steely eyes, he was as cold as they come. When I first discovered I was going to spend my New Year’s Eve next to him on a non-stop flight from Los Angeles to Boston, I was angst-ridden. I associate marble-shaven Caucasians with iconoclastic skin-heads, most of who are racist.
“My name is Walter,” he extended his hand as soon as I settled in my seat.
I told him mine.
“Where are you from?” he asked.
“Zambia.”
He smiled, and in those cold eyes I saw an amenable fellow, one of those highbrows who shuttle between Africa and the US
“I spent three years in Zambia in the 1980s,” he continued.
“I wined and dined with Luke Mwananshiku, Willa Mungomba, Dr Siteke Mwale, and many other highly intelligent Zambians.
“I was part of the IMF group that came to rip you guys off. Your government put me in a mansion overlooking a shanty called Kalingalinga. From my patio I saw it all – the rich and the poor, the ailing, the dead, and the healthy.
“I’ve since moved to another group with similar intentions. In the next few months my colleagues and I will be in Lusaka to hypnotise the [President Michael Sata]. I work for the broker who has acquired a chunk of your debt. Your government owes not the World Bank, but us, millions. We’ll be in Lusaka to offer your president millions and fly back with a cheque 20 times greater.”
At midnight we were airborne. The captain wished us a happy 2012 and urged us to watch the fireworks across Los Angeles.
“Isn’t that beautiful,” Walter said, looking down.
“That’s white man’s country,” he said.
“We came here on the Mayflower and turned Indian land into a paradise, now the most powerful nation on Earth. We discovered the bulb, and built this aircraft to fly us to pleasure resorts like Lake Zambia.”
I grinned: “There is no Lake Zambia.”
“That’s what we call your country. You guys are as stagnant as the water in the lake. We come in with our large boats and fish your minerals and wildlife and leave morsels. That’s your staple food, crumbs. The corn meal you eat, that’s crumbs, the small Tilapia fish you call Kapenta is crumbs. We, the Bwanas (whites), take the cat fish. I am the Bwana and you are the Muntu. I get what I want and you get what you deserve, crumbs. That’s what lazy people get – Zambians, Africans, the entire developing world.”
My smile vanished.
“I see you are getting pissed off,” Walter said.
“You are thinking, this Bwana is a racist. That’s how most Zambians respond when I tell them the truth. They go ballistic. Let’s for a moment put skin pigmentations, this black and white ****, aside. Tell me, my friend, what is the difference between you and me?”
“There’s no difference.”
“Absolutely none,” he said.
“Scientists in the Human Genome Project have proved that. It took 13 years to determine the complete sequence of the three billion DNA subunits. After they were all done it was clear that 99.9% nucleotide bases were exactly the same in you and me. We are the same people. All white, Asian, Latino, and black people on this aircraft are the same. And yet I feel superior,” he said.
“Don’t blame it on slavery, like African-Americans do, or colonialism, or a psychological impact or stigmatisation. Don’t give me the brainwash poppycock. Give me a better answer.”
He continued: “Excuse what I am about to say. Please do not take offence.”
I prepared for the worst.
“You, my friend, flying with me and all your kind are lazy. When you rest your head on the pillow you don’t dream big. You and other so-called African intellectuals are lazy, each one of you. It is you, and not those poor, starving people, who is the reason Africa is in such a deplorable state.
” Poor and uneducated Africans are the most hard-working people on Earth. I saw them in Lusaka markets and on the streets selling merchandise. I saw them toiling in villages. I saw women crushing stones to sell and I wept. I said to myself, where are the Zambian intellectuals? Are Zambian engineers so imperceptive they can’t invent a stone crusher, or a filter to purify well water for poor villagers? Are you telling me that after 37 years of independence your university school of engineering has not produced a scientist or an engineer who can make simple machines for mass use? What’s the school there for?
“Do you know where I found your intellectuals? They were in bars, quaffing. They were at the Lusaka Golf Club, Lusaka Central Club, Lusaka Playhouse, and Lusaka Flying Club. I saw alcoholic graduates. Zambian intellectuals work from eight to five and spend the evening drinking. We don’t. We reserve the evening for brainstorming.
“And you flying to Boston and all you Zambians in the Diaspora are just as lazy and apathetic. You don’t care about your country and yet your own parents, brothers and sisters are in villages, all of them living in squalor. Many have died or are dying of neglect by you. They are dying of Aids because you cannot come up with your own cure.
“You are here, calling yourselves graduates, researchers and scientists and are fast at articulating your credentials once asked. Oh, I have a PhD in this and that – PhD my foot.”
I was deflated.
“Wake up you all,” Walter exclaimed, attracting the attention of nearby passengers.
“You should be busy lifting ideas, formulae, recipes, and diagrams from US manufacturing factories and sending them to your own factories. All those research findings and dissertation papers you compile should be your country’s treasure. Why do you think the Asians are a force to reckon with? They stole our ideas and turned them into their own. Look at Japan, China, India. Just look at them.”
He paused.
“The Bwana has spoken,” he said, and grinned.
“As long as you are dependent on my plane, I shall feel superior and you shall remain inferior. The Chinese, Japanese, Indians, even Latinos are a notch better. You Africans are at the bottom of the totem pole.”
He tempered his voice.
“Get over this white skin syndrome and begin to feel confident. Become innovative and make your own stuff.”
At 8am the plane touched down in Boston.
Walter reached for my hand.
“I know I was too strong, but I don’t give it a damn. I have been to Zambia and have seen too much poverty.”
He pulled out a piece of paper and scribbled something.
“Here, read this. It was written by a friend.”
He had written only the title: “Lords of Poverty.”
Ruwe is a US-based Zambian media practitioner and author. This is an edited version of an article that appeared online and has since gone viral
http://www.timeslive.co.za/opinion/commentary/2012/01/30/the-big-read-you-lazy-intellectuals
12 Feb 2012, 17:04 pm
@Tacitus-68:
90%? One franchise will lose out, not all 5. Also, do you know how much unions make (financially) thanks to their fans (gate takings and merchandise) in comparison to the money they get from broadcast deals SA Rugby makes? Don’t think I am missing any point.
@bananaboy-75:
Sponsors are in it for one thing, exposure, in Super Rugby they get it.
12 Feb 2012, 17:05 pm
@David-76:
What in S.A. ,even in sport, is not a political issue?
Look at the names of the four founder members of the Afrikaner Broederbond an then look at the names of the majority presidents of the franchises/unions that comprise Sa rugby.
Seems you have been too long away from Norwich.
12 Feb 2012, 17:06 pm
@Captain Jack-73: Well you are right. I doubt very much that the EC contributes anything to the existence of professional rugby in SA. I am talking about supporting Supersport or any of the other sponsors. Hell I’ll be amazed if there are 20,000 Supersport subscribers in that poor and hopelessly corrupt region. I can tell you one thing, I will not contribute to professional rugby if they allow the Kings in just to drop another union. Yes I can save 600 bucks a month if SARU does not fix their mess
12 Feb 2012, 17:09 pm
Trust keohane to ruin a pleasant sunday afternoon
12 Feb 2012, 17:13 pm
@Dawn-83: Typical!
12 Feb 2012, 17:13 pm
@PissAnt-80:
But with this move, the 5 existing franchises have made it about all 5, not just about the weakest one.
And do you really think DHL will get as much benefit from sponsoring the Kings as the Stormers?
I beg to disagree.
12 Feb 2012, 17:16 pm
Indeed Guns. Am gonna watch the ever cute but oh so hapless scotties.
12 Feb 2012, 17:16 pm
@Tacitus-78:
That might be true as an observation, but over the years the Aussies with a much smaller player base have been successful without a domestic competition to provide continuity.
My point is that having a Franchise or being part of one, allows provinces to attract players that a non franchise union can’t. Look at how Griquas has become a stepping stone for the Cheetahs, and Boland for the Stormers.
12 Feb 2012, 17:19 pm
@ET.-81:
I’m saying that leaving any political accusations aside, the Kings deserve a franchise for various reasons that are not political.
12 Feb 2012, 17:19 pm
Jockbok.
You killing me here.
I can’t read all that.
12 Feb 2012, 17:20 pm
Baylion your article is of world class.maybe you should apply for Marks position.
12 Feb 2012, 17:20 pm
No more Evans, poor Dawn..
12 Feb 2012, 17:21 pm
@Dawn-86:
We’ll win this one Dawn.
12 Feb 2012, 17:22 pm
Well, the truth has now come out. There was no boycott. Keo, as usual, jumping in headfirst to pre-emptively try and “set the media agenda” as an earlier poster described it, to serve his client.
What remains true, is that the 5 franchises were unanimous in their position. They aren’t going to let the weakest one just become the victim of the politicians.
12 Feb 2012, 17:22 pm
Ja, there goes Evans why am I still watching.
12 Feb 2012, 17:22 pm
@Tacitus-85:
So, are you inferring that when the franchises come up for renewal, the 5 existing ones should refuse to take part in a selection process that allowed them to be awarded one in the first place?
12 Feb 2012, 17:23 pm
Cape Town – South Africa’s five Super Rugby franchises have not threatened to boycott the competition, the South African Rugby Union (SARU) confirmed on Sunday.
A newspaper report alleged that the boycott threat was a part of a letter from the five franchises to SARU president, Oregan Hoskins.
“No threat of a boycott was made,” said Jurie Roux, CEO of SARU. “But the franchises have made it plain that the only option to them is the expansion of Vodacom Super Rugby.
“They also pledged their support for the Kings’ inclusion in 2013 as well as for SARU’s efforts to persuade SANZAR to include a sixth South African franchise.”
The letter reads:
“After lengthy discussions between the franchises, we unanimously decided that it is imperative:
• That such inclusion will benefit South African rugby in general;
• That none of the existing franchises shall be prejudiced by such inclusion in any way whatsoever;
• That none of the existing franchises shall be eliminated from the tournament in 2013 or at any stage thereafter as a result of the inclusion of the Kings;
• That SARU as custodian of the South African leg of the tournament will ensure that the Kings are included without prejudice to any of the existing franchises.
“The existing franchises will endeavour to provide all necessary assistance and support to SARU in its negotiations with SANZAR to ensure the inclusion of six South African franchises in 2013 onwards.”
Roux said that SARU would continue discussions with its SANZAR partners around participation in the 2013 tournament.
A decision on the mechanism by which South Africa’s entrants in Super Rugby in 2013 would be identified was postponed in January. A special General Council meeting delayed the decision until the Annual General Meeting of SARU on March 31 to allow time for further discussions with SANZAR.
12 Feb 2012, 17:23 pm
Wales looking better at the mo JockBok
12 Feb 2012, 17:24 pm
The big blonde ain’t bad though
12 Feb 2012, 17:26 pm
So that’s that.
Keohane you nwata.
12 Feb 2012, 17:26 pm
@Dawn-89:
It’s worth a read. Very thought provoking and makes you think of Elliott shouting at everyone in Africa from his comfy pad in Philly. Here’s a snippet….
“And you flying to Boston and all you Zambians in the Diaspora are just as lazy and apathetic. You don’t care about your country and yet your own parents, brothers and sisters are in villages, all of them living in squalor. Many have died or are dying of neglect by you. They are dying of Aids because you cannot come up with your own cure. “You are here, calling yourselves graduates, researchers and scientists and are fast at articulating your credentials once asked. Oh, I have a PhD in this and that – PhD my foot.”
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