Sharks say Saru must do more to keep talent in SA

SHARKS Chief Operations Officer Eduard Coetzee says SA Rugby must do more to keep players like Cobus Reinach in the country.

The Springbok scrumhalf was approached by Northampton and was open and transparent with his union about the offer. He was looking for any reason to stay.

The Sharks, and Coetzee, then approached SA Rugby in order to try and match the offer from Northampton, but their reaction was slow, and poor.

“I wish SA Rugby had come on board in our negotiations with Cobus four weeks earlier,” Coetzee added.

“Cobus wanted to stay, he just wanted some reassurance that there was a plan for him within SA Rugby, but he didn’t know where he stood.”

Reinach had not heard from SA Rugby, or a national coach, since he was omitted from the 2015 World Cup squad, before receiving the offer. He was uncertain as to where his future lay with the Boks.

“They should have just picked up the phone and reassured Cobus,” said Coetzee. “They spoke a lot about how important he was to their cause to me, but not to Cobus; they also said they would try and help match his overseas offer, but they were too late.”

Eventually, Coetzee received an e-mail saying that SA Rugby would match the offer in order for him to stay at the Sharks, but it had been two weeks since Reinach had signed – under pressure – for Northampton.

“It is a tri-party contract, and SA Rugby need to come to the party a little more. We cannot keep these major players with what we can offer alone. SA Rugby needs to be proactive.”

To be fair to the national body, and especially to new SA Rugby President Mark Alexander, he flew down to meet Reinach – after he had signed the overseas contract – as well as Pat Lambie who was also offered a massive contract by Northampton.

Alexander was able to convince Lambie to stay, by showing interest and intent with the player, but his actions were too late to keep Reinach in South Africa. In addition, Lambie was not happy to break his three-year contract with the Sharks and SA Rugby.

Sharks chief executive, Gary Teichmann, shares the frustrations (about the talent drain), but knows that SA Rugby has their hands tied by a framework and constitution that does not fit the modern era.

“The constitution that governs rugby in South Africa does not allow for commercial success; it is still based around an amateur structure. Smaller unions are in the majority and have the power to call the shots when it comes to the divvying up of funds,” Teichmann explained. “There are too many ‘so-called’ professional players in this country that the funds need to be divided between. In South Africa we have over 1 000 professionals, all getting paid, whereas in New Zealand it is about 250 that the money is split between.”

The constitution and framework of representatives won’t change anytime soon, warns Teichmann, and as such ideas like making franchises 74% shareholdings will struggle as investors won’t agree to be governed by a council of representatives.

Factors such as these are holding Saru back from becoming a spending force in keeping their own players, says Teichmann, as their funds are being spread across the board rather than concentrated on bulking up important Bok contracts.

However, besides the uncontrollable aspects, Teichmann is also looking for Saru to to be more proactive.

Reinach’s decision to leave sheds light on the failings of Saru that Teichmann believes they need to be answerable for.

“There is no vision for the Springboks. When Cobus was negotiating his contract, he did not even know who the Bok coach was going to be. How can he make an informed decision on his future if SA Rugby don’t even know their own direction? Saru need to make the hard decisions, especially about overseas Boks.

“At the moment, Saru can be more proactive even with the limitations on them from their framework,” Teichmann added.

“They can be more professional with their approach to the players they see in their plans, and try to at least sell the Springbok dream, which seems to be waning at the moment.”

Coetzee concluded: “We need it to be a combined approach.

“We have a certain ceiling we can meet, but we need SA Rugby to come to the party to keep these guys.”