Five rugby unions are considering contesting SA Rugby’s budget for 2018 in court after their annual payout was cut by about R11-million.

The Leopards, Griffons, Valke, Boland and Border have given SA Rugby an ultimatum to meet them within the next 10 days to negotiate a mutual agreement or face being summoned to court where the national governing body’s annual budget will be disputed.

The five smaller unions reportedly only received R10.14-million, which is about R11-million (52%) less than what was paid to them last year.

Both Griquas and the Pumas’ budgets were cut by 44%, while the traditional big six unions (Western Province, Blue Bulls, Golden Lions, Sharks, Cheetahs and Kings) received about 10% less than the previous financial year.

‘If SA Rugby does not start a mediation process in the next 10 days, we’ll be forced to go to arbitration,’ one of the unions’ officials told Rapport newspaper.

‘We were scheduled to meet in May, but they postponed it to June and now they’ve cancelled the meeting. That’s the reason why we’ve given SA Rugby an ultimatum.’

The unions believe the pay cuts were to foot the R148-million bill it cost SA Rugby to effect the Cheetahs and Kings’ participation in the Pro14.

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