Saru's planned special general council meeting to be held in Cape Town on Friday has been postponed until 13 February.

The meeting was called to discuss for the third time a proposal relating to the restructuring of the Currie Cup into an eight-team Premier Division and six-team First Division. EP, who won last year's First Division and Griquas, who were relegated from the Premier Division in 2013, would be the two teams to join the Sharks, Western Province, Blue Bulls, Free State Cheetahs, Golden Lions and Pumas in the top flight.

However, soundings taken by the executive council in advance of the meeting clearly indicated that the latest proposal was unlikely to reach the required two-thirds majority. In those circumstances the games and policies committee has been asked to reconsider the proposal for re-submission to the council next month.

At Saru's special general council meeting on 30 September, the final vote was in favour of the amended structure of the competition, with a 19/10 split, but the motion didn’t carry because it required a 75% majority vote. EP president Cheeky Watson told SARugbymag.co.za that it was Boland, Border, SWD, the Leopards and Valke who voted against the proposal (each union has two votes and the Saru president one).

But the bigger unions were unhappy with that outcome and a revote was scheduled to take place on 6 December. However, that meeting was postponed after it became clear that the required two-thirds majority would not be reached.

Photo: Manus van Dyk/Gallo Images