Andy Capostagno looks at Sarfu’s restructuring
Because there is a Test match in Dunedin this weekend there is no rugby being played in South Africa. If the restructuring of the administration of South African rugby announced earlier this week can solve that particular conundrum we’ll all be a lot happier.
SA Rugby (Pty) Ltd became a reality on Tuesday. Its managing director is Rian Oberholzer and he will report to a 14-strong board of directors. Those with long memories might be amused to deduce therefore that the future of the game is in the hands of a South African Rugby Board.
The long-time president of the old SARB, the late Danie Craven, might not have approved of some of the excesses condoned by its successor, the South African Rugby Football Union (Sarfu), but as a pragmatic man he would surely have seen the sense in splitting Sarfu from SA Rugby (Pty) Ltd. For it has less to do with administration than with keeping the taxman at bay.
It is remarkable that Sarfu got away with calling itself an “association not for gain” for so long. Since the landmark Sanzar deal with Rupert Murdoch’s organisation in 1995 it has “gained” rather more money than you can shake a stick at if, in the words of Groucho Marx, that’s your idea of a good time.
But one of the problems associated with having a lot of money is the propensity governments have for taking it away from you in the form of tax. So Sarfu engaged some clever tax consultants to advise it on how it might hold on to a little more profits and this is the result.
SA Rugby (Pty) Ltd will not be listing on the stock exchange in the near future and its sole shareholder is Sarfu. SA Rugby will fund Sarfu with the proposed R22-million transformation budget and Sarfu will look after rugby at school, club and provincial B team level.
SA Rugby will look after everything else: national teams from under-21 up to the Springboks, the Currie Cup, Vodacom Cup and the Super 12. Most of the money that is filtered from SA Rugby to Sarfu will come from the extremely lucrative television rights to screen all this rugby.
In four years’ time the whole structure will come under intense scrutiny when the 10-year Sanzar deal comes to an end. At that point we will know whether the game in the southern hemisphere is massively overvalued thanks to a deal brokered in 1995, which seemed parsimonious then, but in the fullness of time has showered money on the unions in undreamt of amounts.
In 2005 the deal will be renegotiated and if the marketplace remains non-competitive Murdoch may be able to renew it at a considerably cheaper rate. Until then Sanzar, Sarfu and SA Rugby (Pty) Ltd are absolutely correct to look at any way possible to maximise short-term profits.
Meanwhile, the Tri-Nations continues in far-off Dunedin where the All Blacks play the Wallabies. The Springboks will be watching from their training camp and will be willing Australia to win, a scenario that would see all three sides having playing records of won one, lost one over the first round of encounters.
Given that Australia performed so poorly in Pretoria it might seem they have little chance, particularly as it is many years since New Zealand lost a Test in Dunedin. But this has been nothing if not an utterly unpredictable Tri-Nations and don’t be surprised to see the formbook stood on its head one more time.
Rugby is known for its gruesome hard tackles but this has not deterred the fairer sex from taking up this sport at a competitive level, writes Ntuthuko Maphumulo. The South African Rugby Football Union (Sarfu) appropriately launched women’s rugby on Women’s Day in its quest to diversify the sport.
Four teams participated in an inter-regional tournament at Loftus stadium on Thursday: the women’s Cats, a coastal team, the Stormers and Blue Bulls. These teams were selected from the Super 12 regions at regional trials. The four teams played a round-robin format with each side playing three games of 50 minutes a game. Scrums were uncontested.
The development, promotion and marketing of women’s rugby will be done through the existing provincial rugby development structure in the 14 Sarfu regions. Sarfu is looking at introducing the sport in primary and post primary schools.
There are already 65 women’s rugby clubs around the country. From next year
people should expect to see women’s rugby on a par with the men’s game as interprovincial competitions will be started and international games played.
Sarfu president Silas Nkanunu said: “South Africa, admittedly, has been a late starter in introducing formalised women’s rugby structures and programmes. Now we are ready to officially launch the women’s game to South Africa.” The rugby union will be looking to send a formidable team to the 2006 women’s rugby world cup.