It is always interesting to get a sense of the salaries and earnings structure that is in place across South African rugby, from Springbok to franchise and sevens level.

In a breakdown from the South African Rugby Industry Collective Agreement (for 2024-2027), as shared by leading sports business authority Cash N Sport, insight is provided into player earnings and the percentage covered by the South African Rugby Union.

At the top of the category, it’s revealed that members of the Springbok match-day squad will earn R118,197.93 per match, fully funded by SARU.

For the Springbok non-playing squad, there is a figure of R59,539 per week, while the players in the training squad (released to province) can bank on R8.505.57 per day.

A domestic franchise player (URC/Europe) will earn a minimum salary of R39.575 per month, while a Currie Cup Premier division match fee sits at R3,394 per match.

For the Springbok Sevens, a minimum annual retainer is totalled at a fully-funded R353,062 per year.

Of course, this is really just a base level breakdown, with numerous leading players banking pay cheques that are vastly more than the minimum salaries.

In addition, there are numerous top players who have supplementary earnings through sponsorship deals, commercial partnerships and IP rights.

Numerous South African players who ply their trade overseas also earn vastly different salaries, with top Springboks known to be on lucrative multi-million rand contracts per season.

HERE IS THE FULL BREAKDOWN BELOW OF SPRINGBOK AND SA RUGBY EARNINGS & SALARIES

It shouldn’t be forgotten that in the middle of last year, the South African Rugby Union reported a deficit of R6.8m (before taxation) for 2023 in its latest annual report.

The result was described as a “major achievement” by Rian Oberholzer, CEO of SA Rugby, against a global rugby landscape in which many other national unions had reported significant losses.  

A sizeable 38% of annual union revenue of R1.35bn was expended on the investment in participating in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship and European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) competitions (R385m) and the ultimately successful Rugby World Cup campaign (R133m).

Other Springbok and national team activities (R326m), and securing player image rights and local insurance (R124m) accounted for 33% while the R347m distribution to member unions was 25% of income.

The escalating costs arrived in a year in which revenues traditionally decline because of a reduction in the Springbok fixture programme which resulted in a 7% decrease in group revenues from R1.54bn in 2022 to R1.44bn.

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THESE FIGURES?

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Src: TheSouthAfrican.com - https://rugga.co.za/springboks/full-breakdown-springbok-sa-rugby-player-salaries/