South African Rugby said on Tuesday it was still planning for some of the scheduled rugby events to take place this year, among them the three test matches that the world champions Springboks are to play against Scotland and Georgia in July. This is after the sport’s world governing body, World Rugby, said earlier this month it would make an announcement later in the month about whether or not all planned international matches in July would go on as planned, owing to the uncertainty that’s been caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
SA Rugby also announced that the new local competition - which has been reported to be a stopgap for the suspended Super Rugby and Pro14 competitions, and would feature the four Super Rugby franchises as well as the Cheetahs and the Kings from the Pro14 - is also still being planned for, although most youth competitions would be cancelled. The new competition, which hasn’t been named as yet, has recently been reported to be scheduled to start on June 5. Super Rugby, which sees South Africa being represented by the Bulls, Lions, Sharks and the Stormers, as well as the northern hemisphere Pro14, have both been suspended since last month.
Other competitions that the sport’s governing body in the country said were still being prepared for include the Sevens Series which includes the Springbok Sevens, the Currie Cup Premier and First Divisions, the SuperSport Rugby Challenge, the Women’s internationals and Women’s Inter-Provincial competition. Among the competitions that will be cancelled, however, are all the youth weeks, schools under-18 competition, provincial under-19 week, provincial under-20 competition and the provincial sevens.
SA Rugby chief executive Jurie Roux says the decision to cancel some of the competitions was forced by the current global crisis.
“These are unprecedented times, not only for rugby in South Africa but all spheres of life all over the globe. Unfortunately, we had to make some very tough calls in terms of our local competitions, but we have the buy-in from the local franchises and unions, SAREO, MyPlayers and our broadcaster, SuperSport, in this regard. In terms of other teams’ participation in certain competitions, and the hosting of other tournaments, we are currently on a return to train and play readiness plan, but this is dependent on Government advice and decisions as the pandemic evolves.”
The Springboks are scheduled to play Scotland in a two-test series starting on July 4, after which they will play against Georgia in a once-off match which will be on Mandela Day, July 18, at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth.
Novel financial plan
Meanwhile, SA Rugby and its partners have agreed in principle to an ‘Industry Financial Impact Plan’ (IFIP), which is a cost-cutting measure that will see administrators, players and other staff earning reduced salaries in a bid to soften the financial blow that has been brought by the suspension of all competitions.
“Our income is tied to the playing of professional rugby and without matches we potentially don’t have any income. The IFIP has been formulated against a worst-case scenario where we are not able to resume play for the rest of the year. It means we face a major belt-tightening exercise on a sport-wide and personal level; but without these measures we wouldn’t have much of a sport to return to,” said Roux.
The plan is said to enable SA Rugby to cut between R700 million and R1 billion from its budget over the next eight months to ensure viability of the sport post-Covid-19.
* Cover image: independent.ie.
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