Cash-strapped Rugby Australia remains furious with South Africa for pulling out of the Rugby Championship and admits the Springboks’ no-show will cost it – and all SANZAR’s competing nations – millions of dollars.
South Africa’s governing body only announced last Friday it was withdrawing, just two weeks before the tournament kicks off.
The world champions’ absence has forced SANZAR into reverting to a Tri Nations tournament featuring Australia, New Zealand and Argentina, with the original 12-match competition slashed to six.
It’s been speculation that South Africa will forego 50 million rand ($A4.3 million) for not fronting up.
“The financial loss for them will be great,” Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan said on Wednesday.
But the Springboks’ no-show will also seriously impact RA’s finances too.
Even before COVID-19 struck and wiped out the entire Super Rugby season, forcing RA to lay off more than 40 per cent of its staff and slash players’ wages, the governing body forecast a loss of some $9 million for the 2019-20 financial year.
Leaking more money because of South Africa is the last thing RA needs.
“It will cost us quite a lot of money but we’ll find a way through it,” McLennan said.
“We’ll find a way through it. We were surprised because South Africa did agree to the tournament scheduling.
“So we’re disappointed that they pulled out but we’ll just have to move on.”
McLennan all but ruled out RA seeking compensation from their South African counterparts.
“It is what it is. We’ll just all have to deal with it,” he said.
“We’ll just find a way to deal with it. It’s very tough for all sports in Australia through COVID.
“We’ve proven so far that we’re a pretty resilient organisation and we’ll just make it work.”