Spears continue Super 14, Currie Cup 2006 battle
By Piet Van Niekerk

A SOUTH African Rugby Union (Saru) finance committee report flatly contradicts any claim that the Southern Spears have overspent or mismanaged Saru funding.
This revelation is contained in a sworn affidavit filed in the Cape Town High Court yesterday by the chairman of the Southern Spears, Aldy Meyer.
The affidavit also reveals the Spears will argue in their upcoming High Court application against their axing from the Absa Currie Cup that the motive for this was Saru‘s difficulty with the court case by Griquas to be included in the competition.
Meyer said: “A convenient solution was to dump the Southern Spears, even at this late stage, and put the Griquas into the competition.”
In the papers, that will be argued for the Spears by advocate Norman Arendse, SC, Meyer states Saru cannot explain what changed between April 21 this year, when the rugby board regarded itself bound by the rights of the Spears, and May 25 when the board decided the Spears would not participate in the Currie Cup.
Meyer also refers to the persistent claims by the financial director of Saru, Basil Haddad, that the Spears “agreed to a maximum of R3-million in financial support” from Saru and that any money spent over and above that was mismanaged.
Meyer says this is flatly contradicted by the Saru finance committee who on November 3 last year said the Spears would receive a “minimum” amount of R3-million as start-up funding. The Saru finance committee report said the extent of further funding requirements or expectations up to the 2007 Super 14 season would depend on the level of sponsorship secured.
“It is true that Mr (Tony) McKeever has played a major role in initiating this litigation. That is his job as CEO, namely to protect and promote the rights, assets and interests of the company. The decision is supported by a majority of the board,” Meyer said.
The court application that will be heard on July 20 in the Cape Town High Court is the Southern Spears‘s 11th-hour bid to still be part of the latter stages of this year‘s Currie Cup competition.
In this regard Meyer said he denies that it is impossible for the Spears to be accommodated in the 2006 cup.
He said this was Saru‘s initial response to the Griquas‘ application, after which the Spears were removed from the competition and replaced by the Griquas.
“There is any number of practical solutions to the problem. For example, the Spears could be added to the Premier Division, and each team could have an extra fixture.
“All this would require would be some reorganisation of the fixture list and the extension of the rugby season for less than a month. This should not be beyond the ability of SA Rugby,” his affidavit reads.
The application also begs the court for the Spears to be reinstated in the Super 14 competition and for Saru to continue paying the costs of the franchise until the end of the year.