Amateur Western Province rugby still grappling with professionalism

Published on 25th May 2021 | 2 Responses

Take Western Province rugby’s leadership’s attempt to sugarcoat the situation of the union’s state of health from whence it comes. The turkeys don’t vote for Christmas and the province’s leading decision-makers, when fronting the media, didn’t do so to admit to the chaos.

Tuesday’s media exercise was just that … an exercise to gloss over of the reality within WP Rugby.

Believe them if you so choose; I don’t.

The administration of Western Province Rugby has been a shambles for some time, which is why the national custodians of the game have had to involve themselves with the province’s administration. This has filtered to an indifference in performance and results when it comes to Western Province and the Stormers.

There is no CEO at Western Province – and there hasn’t been for some time.

I do pity Stormers coach John Dobson’s task at Western Province and the Stormers. He is the head coach but for the past year he has operationally, directly or indirectly, taken on the role of coach, manager, CEO and marketing chief.

Dobson is constantly trying to find solutions to the boardroom fiasco, trying to secure an equity partner, trying to negate the threat of players leaving, dealing with the reality of players leaving and also involving himself in the search for funds to keep players.

It would effect the sanity of any coach and it spirals to the squad.

Rapport Newspaper on Sunday reported that a joint committee – including WPPR (the professional entity), WPRFU (the amateur side) and SA Rugby will oversee the union’s affairs going forward.

It was accurate.

This was not denied by WPPR Chairman Ebrahim Rasool when he and Dobson addressed the media to paint a picture of a blossoming fortunes within the union and of the pot of gold that will come with a private equity partner.

Both also defended their player contracting and took issue with Rapport’s report detailing excessive contracting and deflecting the situation of their contracting model.

Damian Willemse’s name was the one mentioned in the Rapport Newspaper article, of earning R5million a year.

The figure was accurate and isn’t disputed by Western Province, but explained in a way that Willemse’s salary is a combination of that paid by WP and SA Rugby – and that WP contribute 50 percent of the annual amount.

Willemse was never the scapegoat of the Rapport article, which illustrated the type of expenditure within the union on a player whose form has been indifferent and whose play has regressed radically in the past 12 months.

Rapport’s article, aligned with an opinion piece I wrote as a follow up to the article, was aimed more at the shambles that parades as Western Province rugby as a professional business.

Many on social media took it personally and resorted to the cliche attack of a player being mentioned because he was non white. It has nothing to do with that and everything to do with an opinion that a player’s performance doesn’t warrant a certain financial reward.

Dobson believes Willemse is worth every cent he is being played. If so, then settle the player in one position, entrust him with being the best player and sit back while the player flourishes, the team prospers and championships are won.

Then he is worth every cent.

If Willemse, by way of one example, was the stand out player every weekend and putting the province and region into a position of winning matches or, even better, winning titles, then he would write his own contract fee.

In fact, he wouldn’t be playing in South Africa because no franchise would be able to afford him unless there was some very charitable third-party investment into the paying of a salary.

The same would be true of any of the high-end earners, regardless of their colour.

The issue is not Willemse but those in charge of Western Province who continue to fumble their way through another year of chaos.

Rasool, as chairman, is presenting himself as the messiah leading some form of resurrection. If that was the case, the national custodian of the game would not be doing everything to salvage the untenable situation at Western Province. WP Rugby’s affairs would not currently be run by a stand-in committee, including representation from SA Rugby.

WP Rugby has been ill for some time.

For the record, Rasool told the media all was healthy within Western Province.

SA Rugby Mag editor Craig Lewis reported that the duo of Rasool and Dobson were insistent that there was no over expenditure and that players were paid what they were worth.

‘On an individual basis, we want to respect the sanctity of what a player earns. When it came to Damian the incorrect salary was published. I can’t give you exactly what he earns, but what was reported is considerably way off and certainly not costing WP Rugby anywhere near the R5m per annum that was published.’

You are running a professional sporting business and unfortunately ‘sanctity of player earnings’ is a romantic notion.

Look to soccer, the NBA, NFL, MLB & NHL and the player contract value is no state secret. Players are contracted, the world knows the value they are contracted for and the world knows the expectation that comes with those values and the player knows the consequence of when performance does not match that value.

It is called professional sport, something with which WP Rugby struggles as a concept.

There still is no CEO at WP Rugby and there won’t be one until an equity partner deal is concluded.

That in itself raises more questions than it does answers.

WP Rugby is a mess. It has been for some time and whatever occasional success there has been on the field is in spite of and not because of what is happening in the boardroom.