Springboks resolve contract row

SA Rugby have come to an agreement with the South Africa rugby players to end the stand-off that threatened to disrupt the Springbok’s tour of Argentina, Wales and France next month.

The Springboks will now leave on Sunday for Argentina after a late agreement was reached between the national body and the South African Rugby Players Association on Saturday.

Earlier this week, the players had threatened to strike after several were called in and asked to take pay cuts for the coming season.

Eight players were called in by coach Jake White for one-on-one interviews, but the process stopped when the players stood together and threatened to boycott the SA Rugby awards if the process was not reviewed.

SA Rugby are trying to bring down the number of contracted players from 36 to 24 in their yearly negotiation phase.

But on Friday the national organisation released a statement confirming the matter had been settled.

“The South African Rugby Union and SARPA, the player’s association, today announced that an agreement has been reached on the issue of player contracts,” the statement read.

“The two parties had the previous week held numerous discussions on the issue of player remuneration, appraisals and contracts.”

Andy Marinos, Manager of National Teams at SA Rugby, said both parties were happy with the agreement, reached after the latest round of talks on Friday.

“The discussions were held in a very positive manner and the issues were resolved in the most professional way,” he said.

SARPA presented the proposed agreement to the Springbok players at their team hotel in Cape Town on Saturday morning.

SARPA chairman Piet Heymans said: “I can confirm that the players are happy with the proposed new structure, which came as a result of negotiations between the parties.”

South Africa face Argentina next Saturday, then have a week off before facing Wales and France in consecutive weeks.