With D-Day a little more than three months off, the gloves have come off in Sanzar (South Africa, New Zealand, Australia Rugby). An acrimonious meeting of stakeholders in Dubai two weeks ago set the cat among the pigeons and now the race is on to find some common ground ahead of the June 30 deadline to present Sanzar’s proposal to News Corporation, the broadcast rights holder for the Super 14.
The South African Rugby Union’s (Saru) acting managing director, Andy Marinos, held a media conference in Cape Town on Wednesday to explain his organisation’s position. Saru backs a 17-match Super Rugby season, while the other partners want 21. The latter option would severely impact on the Currie Cup and Marinos said that must not be allowed to happen.
”The message has come loud and clear from our stakeholders that the tournament remains a vital component of our season. Our provinces and broadcaster want it and our Springboks still want to pull on their provincial colours and play in the tournament.
”The trophy has been the pinnacle of South African rugby for 118 years and lifting it remains a goal for all our professional players. It also continues to generate significant interest and revenues for provinces.
”We understand the desire of Australia to lengthen the season as they have no other tournament and New Zealand appear to be undecided on the structure of their NPC competition.”
It seems hardly coincidental that Saru chose to release its annual financial statement on the same day. Headlined ”Saru Cash Reserves at Record High”, the implication for the other two Sanzar unions was clear: we’ve got more than you, so see things our way or we take the highway.
Saru had R70-million in the bank at the end of the financial year, and Basil Haddad, group financial director, said: ”Cash reserves were buoyed by a £3-million grant [R41-million] from the IRB Trust, following the highly successful 2007 Rugby World Cup. That grant led to a R31-million operating profit at last year-end.”
An unexpected windfall was the R6-million that Saru will no longer have to pay to Canterbury for the sale of official merchandise, as the clothing manufacturer is in liquidation.
And the news gets better still, according to Haddad: ”The financial situation should further improve in 2009, due mainly to profits which we expect to generate from the 10 match Castle South Africa 2009 Lions Series. After several years of rigorous planning and preparation, we are looking forward to a highly successful tour  such an opportunity only comes around every twelve years.”
A Sanzar Working Committee arrived the day after Marinos’ media conference for a two day meeting that will go a long way to deciding the future of Super Rugby. These words from Marinos will be ringing in the committee’s ears:
”Our partners have to understand our dynamics as well as acknowledge the value that South African rugby brings to the competition and reflect that in our discussions.”
Which is not so much an olive branch as a call to arms.