The emergency Springbok contract talks between South African Rugby officials and the South African Rugby Players’ Association (Sarpa) in Johannesburg on Thursday failed to deliver a favourable resolution, but a players’ strike was not a viable possibility.
Another round of discussions is planned for Cape Town on Friday afternoon at which all parties will be aiming for a swift fix to the current problem areas.
”A strike is not possible in the foreseeable future. If we did go that route then there are a number of procedures we must go through before declaring strike action,” said Sarpa CEO Piet Heymans.
”It takes time to get those right so a strike is not really viable. We would want to avoid getting to that stage in any case,” he said.
The Boks depart on their three-Test tour of Argentina, Wales and France on Sunday and Heymans was hopeful the situation would have been resolved by then.
”I hope we can reach agreement before the weekend. A number of outstanding issues will need to be addressed on Friday.”
Heymans and former Bok centre Hennie le Roux (Sarpa president) will again meet Andy Marinos and Christo Ferreira — SA Rugby managing director Johan Prinsloo is also expected to be present after missing Thursday’s meeting — to try and iron out the disputed areas.
”The Boks are relocating to Cape Town on Friday afternoon, so we need to be close to them in order to facilitate a speedy resolution, if we need to consult.” – Sapa