Springbok players will no longer get national contracts from the South Africa Rugby Union (Saru).
Instead, they will only get one contract from their union after Saru announced a new contracting model for players on Friday.
For the first time since the game turned professional in 1996 will there be no national contracts.
On top of that, player salaries will also be capped.
Saru CEO Jurie Roux explains: “The existing model plainly was not working; the rugby economy could not continue to support such a large, fully professionalised workforce while the strategy to retain top players in South Africa had become too narrowly focused.
“The new model will see our best players properly looked after from a payment point of view – in the South African context – as well as from a player management and development point of view.
“At the same time it will improve the financial sustainability of unions by controlling budgets and sharing out the Springbok payment budget through the unions to a broader pool of players.
“There will be challenges and growing pains I am sure, but for the first time the three constituent parties in the player journey – the players themselves, the employers and the national body – have been able to sit down, take a strategic view and come up with what we believe will lead to a more sustainable future for the game.”
New contracting categories:
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Professional players (full-time players) who will play in Super Rugby, PRO14 and Currie Cup Premier Division competitions;
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Semi-professional players (part-time players) who will play in the Currie Cup First Division and the SS Challenge;
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Development players (21 or younger) who will play in the U21 and U20 competitions. However, they may be made available as temporary replacements;
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Club players may be contracted as temporary replacements for injured professional and semi-professional players.
Squad size and salary bill:
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Super Rugby, PRO14 or Currie Cup Premier Division unions may not contract more than 45 pro players and have a salary bill greater than R60m or of more than R15m in the case of the Pumas and Griquas.
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First Division teams may contract no more than 23 pro players or more than 40 players in total. Their remuneration cap is set at R6m.
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Unions may contract an unlimited number of development players providing they stay within a cap of R10m for Super Rugby and PRO14 unions (reducing to R7.5m in year two) and R1m for all other teams.