A year-long research project among SA’s professional players revealed that an ‘overwhelming majority intend to sign overseas deals soon’.

According to the report, conducted by rugby players’ organisation MyPlayers, nine out of 10 of the players are at least considering the possibility of signing a deal to play overseas in the next two years.

The players were asked to mark the most appropriate answer as to why they were considering to leave the country and mark only one answer.

Transformation and South Africa’s political situation were deliberately specified as two separate options to prevent interpreting the political situation as an approximation for transformation systems.

The political situation encompasses many aspects of South African life, including the unstable electricity supply, drought and economic and political volatility.

Added to this, players said that an underlying reason was security for life after rugby. Most added that they were dissatisfied at only getting offered two-year contracts at a time from the South African franchises. A number of Springboks said the franchises would wait until the last moment to discuss their contract situations, causing stress and tension.

The full findings of the research were published in the Voice 2019 report. Download the report here.

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