Kings slapped with salary cut shocker
And that is ONLY if they make the South African Rugby Union's Super Rugby cut.
Players who do not make it into the Super Rugby squad will have to rely on the near bankrupt Eastern Province Rugby Union – who has not been able to pay players for the last three months – for an income.
SARU on Friday revealed part of the management team – which include naming Deon Davids (currently a coach at the South Western Districts Academy) as head coach.
His assistants will be Mzwandile Stick (backs coach), Barend Pieterse (forwards coach) and Nadus Niewoudt (conditioning coach) – while Zingi Hela (the manager of the Border Academy) has been appointed team manager. They will be assisted by consultant coaches from the SARU mobi-unit.
SARU said in a statement they have worked with the South African Rugby Players' Association in communicating the plans and expectations with the Kings players.
SARU Chief Executive Officer Jurie Roux said that the players and management would be paid next week, although the position of players not contracted to the Southern Kings by SARU remained a question to be resolved by the EPRU.
However, what the sanitised media release did not reveal was that the players will not be paid what they were earning.
In fact they will all be required to sign new, eight-month contracts with SARU and it will result in salary cuts.
It means the motivation for SARU's bailout of the Kings may well be more related to saving face – both with their SANZAAR partners, after making a song-and-dance to get the sixth franchise, and with government, whom they promised a 'transformation franchise'.
SARU also made it clear it will be a "fully transformed" squad, which means at least 50 percent of the players will be black.
In the media release on Friday SARU made it clear all six Super Rugby franchises are "owned by SARU" and awarded to host unions at their discretion.
However, it the Kings' case SARU is acting as the 'host union', while home games will be played at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth.
The Southern Kings are being run as a separate entity to the Eastern Province Rugby Union or the EP Kings, over whose affairs or operations SARU has no bearing.
"I'd like to start by thanking the players and staff of the Kings, as well as the people of the Eastern Cape for their patience while we have been working as hard as we can to put a workable plan into place," Roux said.
"We are unable to go into all the player details right now as we still have to confirm some contracts and tie up loan arrangements but, considering when we started and from what base, I am very pleased with where we have come.
"I believe we are putting together a more than competent squad that will not only be representative of the region, but coincidentally meets the targets of our Strategic Transformation Plan four years ahead of schedule.
"The squad we have identified will have around 50 percent black players while the management team is more than 50 percent black. Our Rugby Department has picked the best available talent."
Roux said: "It is a slimmed down coaching team but it will be ably supported by the expertise we have in our mobi-unit and other SARU resources to give them every chance of flying the Kings' flag with pride.
"Next week will be spent on medical, administration and logistical planning before the players break up and work on individualised fitness programmes before returning on 4 January. We have already earmarked some warm-up matches against local opposition in January so we believe that on-field affairs are well in hand."
Roux said that he hoped to confirm two new sponsorships in the New Year that would assist in funding the new-look Southern Kings.
By Jan de Koning
@King365ed
@rugby365com
