‘Watershed’ for SA Rugby as provinces give up power

Provincial unions' powers have been drastically cut following a "big day in South African rugby". � Ryan Wilkisky/BackpagePix

Provincial unions' powers have been drastically cut following a "big day in South African rugby". � Ryan Wilkisky/BackpagePix

Published Dec 9, 2016

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Provincial unions’ powers have been drastically cut following a “big day in South African rugby”, with their power to appoint the Springbok coach and run commercial entities removed as well.

The SA Rugby Union’s General Council – made up of the 14 provinces – met in Newlands on Friday, and the “turkeys effectively voted for Christmas”. The General Council agreed to constitutional changes that clipped their wings, the most significant of which is to allow private companies to own up to 74 percent of a province’s commercial arms.

Equally as important was the change with regards to who appoints the Springbok coach and chief executive. Previously the General Council had the final say for those positions, but that responsibility has now been handed to the Executive Council – which runs the business side of SA Rugby.

Other major changes made include:

- Increasing the make-up of the independent and player representation on the Executive Council to five independents with six elected members;

- Introducing new committees for franchise (Super Rugby) and non-franchise rugby to focus and streamline decision-making;

- Removing the selection committee while retaining a selection convenor to work with national team coaches;

- Reducing the presidential roles from three to two by removing the vice presidency from 2018.

SA Rugby chief executive Jurie Roux said at a press conference on Friday that the decisions made represented a “massive change” in the way rugby would be administered in this country.

While admitting that these were “tough economic times”, Roux said that SA Rugby is not insolvent, having made some operational cost-cuts. He said that they were budgeting for a profit next year, but were anticipating a “small loss” for this year.

“It’s a pretty big watershed day in South African rugby. If we move in 15 different directions, we will never move forward. We needed 75 percent approval, and that’s pretty unanimous. People are always afraid of change, and change is difficult,” he said.

“Sometimes things happen on the field and other places that just forces you to change. Maybe there’s a silver lining to everything, although sometimes it’s difficult to see it. But in the end, I think people made decisions in the best interests (of South African rugby).

“And if you think about some of the decisions taken, turkeys actually did vote for Christmas on some of them – and I’m being serious.

“Some of them had to make fairly hard decisions, which could be deemed in their own constituencies as not being in the interests of their union, but in the interests of South African rugby as a whole. And people are not always loved for that. So, I’ve got a great amount of respect for people standing up today.”

The change in the ownership scale could see local teams being run in a similar style to European clubs, where millions of pounds and euros have been brought into those sides by private investors, and one of the positive spin-offs of that may be top South African players being retained in the country.

Springbok coach Allister Coetzee has complained about the late arrival of overseas-based players before matches, and keeping the leading players at home would help solve that problem.

“We have looked at all our committees and sub-committees, and those have been streamlined down to the statutory requirements in line with the King 4 (report on corporate governance),” Roux said.

“A very big decision for us was to take away the constitutional restriction of 49.9 percent in terms of private equity investment into the commercial arms of the provincial unions to 74 percent, but that is at the discretion of each and every union – whether they want to do that or not.”

Roux added that choosing the Bok coach often resulted in a delay for the General Council to make the final decision months after the best candidate was identified by the executive.

“The Council’s feeling in terms of that is that it is an operational appointment, and it is part of the responsibility of the executive. It’s the same for the CEO,” he said.

Another change, in line with Sascoc regulations, sees SA Rugby changing the provincial members to the nine geopolitical boundaries.

But Roux and president Mark Alexander insisted that it won’t change the make-up of commercial competitions such as the Currie Cup or Craven Week, which will still have 14 provincial teams taking part.

Alexander said that Coetzee – who is under pressure to hold on to his job following a disastrous first year in which the Boks lost eight out of 12 Tests – was not discussed on Friday. “We never discussed the national team. We will have a full review on Monday and Tuesday,” he said.

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