Vodacom Bulls CEO Edgar Rathbone says he doesn’t expect any big changes around the current salary cap, despite South Africa’s entry into the European Champions Cup next season. DYLAN JACK reports.

The Bulls, as well as the Sharks and Stormers, will be playing in Europe’s top-flight competition next season, after finishing inside the top eight of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship.

There has been an expectation that, with potentially three competitions taking place concurrently, the salary cap could be relaxed to allow the local teams to increase their squad size and cope with the number of fixtures.

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During a wide-ranging media conference on Thursday, Bulls chief executive Rathbone said he was pleased with how the Pretoria team had performed in their first URC season, but thought it’s unlikely that the salary cap will be expanded.

“There are three South African teams in the quarter-finals, with two of those teams hosting. So, I think we have done really well,” Rathbone said.

“It is important to note that the salary cap does not come through Saru. It comes through the players’ organisation as well as through Sareo and a collective agreement with that.

“There are a few important things. In the past few years, most clubs, if not all, have been under the salary cap quite significantly. From my information currently, there is not one club that is actually on the 50 maximum in terms of players.

“I think we are managing it quite well currently. There is a task team that has been set up to look at possible changes going into next year, but I think the system currently is working. The results on the field have shown that over the past few months.

“I don’t expect massive changes. Maybe a slight increase in the number of players being contracted.”

Rathbone said the Bulls will only be able to make plans around the structure of their squad once the full details of next season’s Champions Cup are available.

“We haven’t received any details around the Champions Cup, so it’s hard to comment on it. We still need to see where it fits into the season, where the Currie Cup and URC will fit in. Only once we get that information, can we comment about how you will manage your squads between those competitions.

“Will the Currie Cup be a single or double round? When will it be? That will all impact your playing numbers and what is needed.

“The reality is we still have plenty of credit on our cap. We are under the cap this year, substantially as well. Our model basically is our budget for players is not determined only by the salary cap. It’s determined by fixed revenue, which is effectively sponsorship and distributions from SA Rugby out of broadcasting rights. Your flexible revenue – which is ticket sales and suite sales – as we’ve all seen can disappear quite quickly.

“We look for revenues to match in terms of what we want to spend on the squad.”

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The Bulls will host the Sharks in the URC quarter-finals on Saturday afternoon and Rathbone said that ticket sales indicate that they could fill the current stadium quota.

“Especially over the last two days, there has been a massive pick-up. We are getting close to the 20,000, with the capacity being 25,000 for this fixture. If the increase overnight sustains over the next few days, we will get close to, if not the full 25,000.

“We need to thank Affies across the road. They are hosting Menlopark, but they have moved their fixture earlier in the day. The area around Loftus is going to have a lot of rugby on Saturday, so we are hoping for a big crowd.”

A further positive for the Bulls in this regard is that Loftus Versfeld will host the first Test between the Springboks and Wales in July.

Rathbone added that, while they have sold all the tickets they were allocated for the Test, they are hopeful that SA Rugby will provide news of a potential increase of spectators allowed to attend the match.

“At the moment, we have sold all our tickets [for the Test] and ticket sales are closed. We are waiting for further updates, but at the moment there isn’t anything new. From my information, SA Rugby is busy negotiating and hopefully, we get news in the next week or so, about the possibility of raising that number.

“At the moment we are filled up for the Test.”

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