Southern Kings confirmed as new franchise for Super rugby

01 Feb 2016 | Admin Author

The SA Rugby Union (Saru) confirmed on Tuesday that the Southern Kings will definitely play as a new franchise in the 2013 Super 15 competition.

"It's a simple fact - the Kings will play next year," Saru CEO Jurie Roux told Parliament's sport portfolio committee.

He, and other top Saru officials, were presenting Saru's transformation plan to the committee.However, Roux said the Kings' inclusion should not happen "at the cost of SA Rugby or any of the other franchises". That was the only matter that still needed to be resolved.

Saru president Oregan Hoskins said: "The starting point [to this debate] is that we've taken a decision, all 14 provinces, that the Kings will participate in the Super 15 next year.

"The discussion with the existing franchises is ongoing and we'll take a decision [on what franchise would be dropped from the South African conference when we meet sometime in July."

Roux was confident that the Kings would attract the necessary sponsorships, which would enable them as a franchise to sign up the kind of players that would turn them into a "winning team which can compete against the best".

"It's all about money, and money will buy you the best team," he said. "Players will move to where the money is."

SA Rugby would invest more than R72 million this year towards rugby development and transformation initiatives, the committee was told.