Much needs doing before PRO14
I AM appreciative of Andre Rademan’s letter (“New executive makes progress”, August 2), especially in this The Herald letters forum.
I fully understand the challenges you and your EPRU exco are facing, perhaps better than most.
Not doing anything about it is reckless and irresponsible, and failing in your fiduciary responsibility to us, the 110 clubs of EP Rugby.
You, as president of EPRU, and your exco are accountable for this and still we see no transformation, no turnaround strategy, no sponsors.
The EPRU exco is headed into a precarious situation in the next days, before the start of the PRO14, with the game against the Scarlets in Wales, the PRO12 champions no less, with no properly constituted company.
This, as you know, should be 100% owned by EPRU and, instead, the commercial rights and the monies to run the professional arm have been hijacked by Saru and the same people who brought about the liquidation of EP Rugby Pty Ltd.
What is the properly constituted company and who are its directors, who need to be empowered to legally contract management personnel, players, coaches and support personnel for the three Currie Cup teams and the 50-man PRO14 squad? Or will there be further legal contractual disputes on your and the EPRU exco’s watch?
It was reported just on Tuesday you were considering Cornal Hendricks as a player who failed his medical at Toulon and the Bulls, and is in a settlement dispute with Saru over his cardiac condition (“Hendricks hale and hearty”).
Why even waste time with this futile effort?
I am sorry to say that your letter instills no confidence in your EPRU exco administration and, once again, we are watching the prospect of the sad demise and implosion of EP Rugby.
How long will this continue as no one in Mandela Bay could endure another rugby catastrophe?
Still there is no answer from your mobile phone.
I still did not read about or see any media release from you on PRO 14 or Currie Cup.
What is happening with our U19 team moving from the A Section to the B Section?
I have not seen any media advert for coaches or internal memorandum to the EPRU clubs for club coaches.
Also there has been no communication to inform the public about the EP Kings website, which is still outdated.
The NMU and Academy are still not sorted out, that’s why our U19s are so bad.
Hopefully the U21s will be sorted out when they start.
On the liquidation, please tell us about the payments being done in three yearly R5-million payments, courtesy of the Nelson Mandela Bay metro, and if the EPRU will then run the EP Rugby Pty Ltd, so it can legally establish a board, and competent and capable management.
In Port Elizabeth we have people who can assist you on numerous platforms, so make use of them.
Hope you and a professional team will sort out all the problems on hand and the massive challenges that are still ahead.
This needs to be done now and not next week or next month, as I get the sense every other franchise in PRO14 will be miles ahead of us come September 2 and EPRU is floundering from one meeting to the next, while time passes us by.
Bassie van der Walt, Port Elizabeth