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South Africa to take war to overseas clubs in bid to halt Springbok player exodus

By Online Editors
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Dozens of home-based players will be taken into Springbok succession planning next year as part of a radical new contracting strategy announced by SA Rugby on Saturday.

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Players will be ranked by position – with next generation talent also brought into a significantly widened pool – and those who are plying their trade in South Africa will receive top-up payments from their provinces – funded by SA Rugby.

Going hand-in-hand with the policy is the intention to formally scrap the 30-cap rule for overseas-based players. The regulation was put in place at the start of the 2017 season and stipulates that only players with 30 or more Springbok caps would be eligible for national selection if they were playing for an overseas-based team.

And SA Rugby has written to the leading foreign clubs and leagues (as well as advising other nations) that it will strictly enforce the requirements of World Rugby’s Regulation 9, which prescribes when and how frequently club players must be released for international duty.

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“We have been agonising over how to keep players in the country since the game went professional more than 20 years ago and the bottom line is that the rand is too weak and the economy of South African rugby too small to compete,” said Rassie Erasmus, Director of Rugby at SA Rugby.

“A South African player can earn more from a two-month contract in Japan than he can if he were to win the World Cup with the Springboks this year. That’s the reality we have to face up to.

Rassie Erasmus, Springboks head coach. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)
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“In recent years we have focused on trying to retain a small number of high profile players. But it has been a small group and many of those players end up leaving anyway. Last season those contracted players only appeared for 38 percent of their available time.

“Once we have done our work, the new strategy could see as many as 75 players in Springbok succession planning and being financially rewarded for it.

“We had to disrupt the model.”

Erasmus explained the new strategy also involved direct communication with the overseas contracting clubs.

“We have told the overseas clubs that we will be enforcing Regulation 9 and will be requiring our players for up to 14 weeks of the year. If the clubs don’t like that then they have the option of not signing the player.”

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However, he said the greatest advantage of the new system was more effective succession planning.

Jean-Luc du Preez of South Africa reacts during the Rugby Championship match between the New Zealand All Blacks and the South African Springboks at QBE Stadium. (Photo by Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Images)

“The only solution that would keep everyone happy would be if we had enough money to pay the players we wanted to keep as much as they wanted to receive – but that’s not the world we live in,” he said.

“We’ve got to deal with the practical realities and stay focused on our objective, which is to field the best available 23 players who really want to play for the Springboks and who are prepared to make sacrifices whether they are playing here or overseas.

“We only have a limited budget to do that, but we have many players who have the potential to become Springboks. This way, we can give them that message in a practical way.

“They will know that there is a future for them with the Springboks and that they can move up the succession ladder if their play merits it.”

Erasmus said the new model would spread the risk inherent in the old model, which saw contracts awarded to a small number of players. “This way we incentivise and encourage a broader group, subsidize the franchises by giving a larger number of players additional income and put in place proper succession planning,” he said.

Erasmus said the plan had been explained to the main employers of elite players – the franchise CEOs – as well as the players’ union, MyPlayers.

He explained that the rankings would be reviewed on an annual basis while mechanisms would be put in place to make in-season adjustments in exceptional circumstances.

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Bull Shark 38 minutes ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

Of the rugby I’ve born witness to in my lifetime - 1990 to date - I recognize great players throughout those years. But I have no doubt the game and the players are on average better today. So I doubt going back further is going to prove me wrong. The technical components of the game, set pieces, scrums, kicks, kicks at goal. And in general tactics employed are far more efficient, accurate and polished. Professional athletes that have invested countless hours on being accurate. There is one nation though that may be fairly competitive in any era - and that for me is the all blacks. And New Zealand players in general. NZ produces startling athletes who have fantastic ball skills. And then the odd phenomenon like Brooke. Lomu. Mcaw. Carter. Better than comparing players and teams across eras - I’ve often had this thought - that it would be very interesting to have a version of the game that is closer to its original form. What would the game look like today if the rules were rolled back. Not rules that promote safety obviously - but rules like: - a try being worth 1 point and conversion 2 points. Hence the term “try”. Earning a try at goals. Would we see more attacking play? - no lifting in the lineouts. - rucks and break down laws in general. They looked like wrestling matches in bygone eras. I wonder what a game applying 1995 rules would look like with modern players. It may be a daft exercise, but it would make for an interesting spectacle celebrating “purer” forms of the game that roll back the rules dramatically by a few versions. Would we come to learn that some of the rules/combinations of the rules we see today have actually made the game less attractive? I’d love to see an exhibition match like that.

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