South African Rugby Football Union (Sarfu) president Brian van Rooyen has criticised Morne du Plessis, who resigned from the board of SA Rugby on Monday.
Briefing the National Assembly’s sport and recreation committee on Tuesday, Van Rooyen said Du Plessis was elected to serve on the board and should have spoken out at last weekend’s rugby bosberaad in Johannesburg.
He had had every opportunity to air his views and highlight his dissatisfaction at the bosberaad.
”He chose not to do it at that bosberaad,” Van Rooyen said.
It had been the ideal opportunity to do so, as the event was attended by players’ representatives, schools, the 14 provincial unions and the national defence force.
Everybody with a stake in South African rugby was there and aired their views, he said. The decisions taken there were not ”underhand dealings”, as they were being purported to be.
”It would be naive for anybody to think that you can convince 18 presidents to cut deals at a bosberaad. That’s why we had a bosberaad. We asked them to come and highlight their issues.
”So … from that point of view, the departure of Mr du Plessis is sad from a rugby perspective, but we would have expected [Du Plessis] as a renowned leader in South African rugby to highlight his concerns at that bosberaad.”
Van Rooyen said a number of decisions were taken at the bosberaad, which would hopefully be released through the media on Wednesday.
”Those changes, I believe, are in the best interests of South African rugby.”
However, some changes had contractual obligations that were still being negotiated, and only after that would the full findings of the bosberaad be released, he said.
At a press briefing at Newlands in Cape Town on Monday night, Du Plessis said he believed he would not be able to contribute under the current structure of South African rugby or the proposed changes as outlined at the weekend bosberaad.
”The reason for this resignation [from the board of SA Rugby] is my strong view, from experience of the past two months, that SA Rugby is in fact merely an extension of Sarfu [14 provinces] and its president, and is set to become more so, as outlined at the bosberaad.
”As a sole shareholder of SA Rugby, this is Sarfu and the president’s prerogative. However, I personally have not been able to contribute constructively as an independent director and see no possible way to do so.
”I cannot accept accountability for that which I have no influence over, and it is misleading for the rugby public to think otherwise.”
Du Plessis highlighted three areas of frustration:
- The process followed in selecting the Springbok coach;
- The ban imposed on board chairperson Theunie Lategan for speaking to the press; and
- Deal-making between rugby provinces about competition structures.
— Sapa