SA Rugby confirms competition cancellations, budget cuts, safeguard plans, competition alternatives and more

April 21, 2020
1615
Ultimate Rugby

SA Rugby has confirmed the cancellation of a number of events and continued contingency planning for others in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic it was announced on Tuesday, following extensive consultation between members of the local rugby industry. The rugby industry has also agreed in principle a wide-ranging plan to cut between R700 million to R1 billion from its budget over the next eight months to ensure the post-COVID-19 viability of the sport through an Industry Financial Impact Plan (IFIP).

“These are unprecedented times, not only for rugby in South Africa, but across all spheres of life all over the globe,” said Jurie Roux, CEO of SA Rugby.

“Unfortunately, we had to make some very tough calls in terms of our local competitions, but we have the buy-in and support from the local franchises and unions, SAREO, MyPlayers and our broadcaster, SuperSport, in this regard.

“The decision to cancel certain competitions and tournaments is in line with what has been happening across various sporting codes all over the world – we are not shielded from this in South Africa.

“In terms of other teams’ participation in certain competitions, and the hosting of other tournaments, we are currently on a return to train and play readiness plan, but this is dependent on Government advice and decisions as the pandemic evolves.”

The tournaments which are still part of the planning for 2020, are:

Local franchise and union competition planned for June to August as alternative to Vodacom Super Rugby and Guinness PRO14
Currie Cup Premier and First Divisions
Provincial U21 Competition
SuperSport Rugby Challenge
Women’s Inter-Provincial competition
International matches involving the Springboks Men’s & Women’s teams
HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series involving the Blitzboks

Furthermore, the participation of the SA Rugby Sevens Academy and Springbok Women’s Sevens teams will be evaluated as international borders reopen and new dates are received for the World Series Qualifiers for 2020.

The following tournaments and competitions have been cancelled for 2020:

All SA Rugby Youth Weeks
SA Rugby Provincial U13 and U17 Sevens
SA Schools U18 Competition
SA Rugby Provincial U19 Week
SA Rugby Provincial U20 Competition
SA Rugby Provincial Sevens Competition

All club and community rugby is still postponed until further notice and SA Rugby reiterated its plea to all clubs, teams, players and coaches to adhere to the lockdown rules.

The rugby industry has agreed in principle a wide-ranging plan to cut between R700 million to R1 billion from its budget over the next eight months to ensure the post-COVID-19 viability of the sport through an Industry Financial Impact Plan (IFIP).

The Plan has been agreed in a united strategy formulated in discussions including representatives from all stakeholders: SA Rugby; provincial unions; players and rugby industry employees. The plan incorporates the Industry Salary Plan (ISP) which will see a united and collective approach towards salary reductions.

The economies will be achieved by reduced expenditure caused by the cancellation of competitions, cuts in other operational budgets and in salary reductions.

“Many businesses find themselves in a fight for survival and rugby is no different,” said Jurie Roux, CEO of SA Rugby.

“We face an extremely threatening crisis and we had to take united and decisive action to address it head on.

“I’d like to commend the employees, players and the unions for the collaborative and realistic way they have approached this crisis. We are all in this together and we all quickly agreed that we have to equally contribute to the solution.”

Roux said that the salary reductions had been agreed in principle by the collective and were now being communicated to those effected before final approval through the various governance channels of SA Rugby, MyPlayers, Sports Employees Unite and the individual unions.

“Our income is tied to the playing of professional rugby and without matches we potentially don’t have any income,” said Roux. “We don’t know when we will be able to resume the season so have had to budget against a range of scenarios.

“This Industry Financial Impact Plan has been formulated against a worst-case scenario where we are not able to resume play for the rest of the year. It means we face a major belt-tightening exercise on a sport-wide and personal level; but without these measures we wouldn’t have much of a sport to return to.”

The Industry Financial Impact Plan is scheduled to run until the end of December in the first instance.

Rugby and COVID-19 timeline

11 March: COVID-19 Management Committee meets for the first time
12 March: Guinness PRO14 season is suspended indefinitely
13 March: World Rugby cancels the women’s HSBC World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series tournament, that was due to be played in Stellenbosch on 28 and 29 March
13 March: SA Rugby cancels Junior Springbok home and away internationals in April and May
14 March: SANZAAR suspends Vodacom Super Rugby for the foreseeable future
16 March: SA Rugby suspends all national team training camps and business travel and orders cost savings; postpones kick off of SuperSport Rugby Challenge with a view to return to play on 25 April
16 March: SA Rugby announces actions and issues guidelines on safe practices to all rugby bodies
18 March: SA Rugby announces suspension of all rugby until the end of April and that discussions are underway to reschedule competitions to exclude international travel and be played behind closed doors.
20 March: World Rugby cancels the Junior World Championship scheduled for Italy in June
23 March: President Cyril Ramaphosa announces nationwide lockdown to start from midnight on 26 March
24 March: IOC postpones the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games to 2021
27 March: SA Rugby, MyPlayers (players’ organisation), the South African Rugby Employers’ Organisation (SAREO) and Sports Employees’ Unite (SEU) confirm establishment of a joint working group to manage the response to the crisis
3 April: The Rugby industry announces progress on an Industry Mitigation Strategy (IMS) to safeguard the games future. Plan to go through approval processes.
21 April: Industry Financial Impact Plan to make significant cuts in ‘global’ South African rugby budget confirmed.