South Africa attempts to stem the flow of players leaving their country

http://allafrica.com/stories/201512151325.html

The Executive Council of the South African Rugby Union has approved a new funding model for professional rugby players designed to encourage more players to see out their careers at home.

The increase in funding - from R25m to R90m per annum (in addition to Springbok contracts and match fees) - was approved by the General Council on Friday as part of the 2016 SARU budget.

The new arrangement secures the collective image rights of all South African professional rugby players for use by their employers.

It means that all 14 provincial unions - as well as the mother body - can use the collective images of their contracted players in marketing material and appearances for sponsors, now that those rights have been secured from MyPlayers, the official professional rugby players' organisation.

I was under the impression that they (as well as others) already did this, but now SA will be doing it on a broader scale and to all players rather than just their top internationals.

I found this interesting because SA are a top rugby playing nation, and you would assume that there is plenty of stability to their club game, but for quite some time now they have lost players mostly to French, English and Japanese clubs. I'm not sure the exact number but when I last seen it they had lost a lot of players to France. It is not only the widely sought after internationals being nicked, but promising youngsters have also gone in recent years, and also players considered to be just average provincial players. I also found this interesting because I have never heard of a South African player go to a club on a big deal (or minor one) and turn out to be a complete failure at the peak or latter stages of their contract. I think we could point to quite a few kiwi's, etc who came to Europe and turned out to be just that.

South Africans are no doubt good value for money IMO - highly skilled players that make a positive impact at their new club and most of whom are very affordable. Too little too late for the likes of Spedding, Le Roux and Kockett. Might we be adding Stander and Van Den Heever to that list?

mikey_dragon wrote:but for quite some time now they have lost players mostly to French, English and Japanese clubs.

you can add Scotland and Ireland to that list as well.

LordDowlais wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:but for quite some time now they have lost players mostly to French, English and Japanese clubs.

you can add Scotland and Ireland to that list as well.

Well in that case I should add Wales to the list too. Or not, as I said "mostly" and the way I see it they are mostly travelling to the richer unions.

There's no question the Scottish sides have done very well from the South African exodus.

Josh Strauss has been a key player in Glasgow's Pro12 success in recent years and was capped for Scotland at the World Cup. Glasgow also had Rossouw De Klerk at tighthead last season who was a very decent player, albeit had to leave following some pretty dark allegations off field.

Edinburgh, or Edinbokke as the really witty Glasgow fans sometimes call us, have also benefitted from some excellent players from South Africa. Cornell Du Preez is outstanding and has probably been our best player this season. Nel has become an international class tighthead since moving to Edinburgh and has built a strong reputation at the World Cup. We also have Anton Bresler at lock who brings some classic South African physicality to proceedings. We also signed Andries Strauss, who is less good.

I guess this is a long winded way of saying thankyou to South Africa for these players, and anything they can do to stem the flow sounds very sensible to me, albeit the horse has bolted with respect to the current generation.

Oh yeah I forgot about Strauss and Nel - I guess they weren't really going to be capped? When you look at Spedding and Kockett, then VDH and Stander, you get the impression that these guys could have eventually represented the Springboks (likely after Meyer left) if they had stayed put. Kockett was a very good player yet a little unfortunate that there was a long list of exceptional No.9s ahead of him.

Three of Dragons key players are from SA; Harris, Landman and Pretorious. They're all pretty standout players and put more effort and passion into playing for the team than some of the homegrown players do. Landman should be our captain again, he's quite an inspiring leader.

Van Den Heever? The guy who plays for Munster right? Going by what Munster fans are saying about him he's lucky to be playing in the Pro 12 let alone internatonals. He's been woeful this season.

Make the under 21s the official second team of South Africa and cap all these guys coming through.

thebandwagonsociety wrote:Make the under 21s the official second team of South Africa and cap all these guys coming through.

That's what we are doing, but it only counts if the team they are playing against recognise their U21's as their official second team. So for instance if the Bok's U21's played England or Ireland they would still be free to play for another country.

At least, I think that is how it works.

I suspect the reasons players are leaving South Africa are more complex than just money. Sadly the economy is on its uppers. Corruption is rife. Power cuts are an everyday experience. Crime is at epidemic proportions.

Add to that the prospect of quotas being introduced it is no surprise that players are getting out before the flood brings the price down.

Exiledinborders wrote:I suspect the reasons players are leaving South Africa are more complex than just money. Sadly the economy is on its uppers. Corruption is rife. Power cuts are an everyday experience. Crime is at epidemic proportions.

Add to that the prospect of quotas being introduced it is no surprise that players are getting out before the flood brings the price down.

Add in 20 rand to the £ and I think the exodus will continue. While this isn't a forum for politics, the rugby trends are similar across other areas too.