The South African Rugby Players Association has welcomed the arbitration award handed down by Advocate Nic Treurnicht – confirming that SARPA must with immediate effect be given representation on the SARU Executive Council.

It is the second time that a court has ruled in favour of the players’ union, to ensure they have a member on the council.

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“The arbitration award confirms that the Collective Agreement is binding on SARU and that SARPA is entitled to representation on the SARU Executive Council.” Piet Heymans, CEO of SARPA, said.

“SARPA maintained from the outset that the right to player representation on the SARU Executive Council should be recognised in the new SARU Constitution.

“Despite having received legal advice and opinions from Senior Counsel to the effect that they should make provision for this right, which is contained in the Collective Agreement, SARU nevertheless refused to provide for player representation on its Executive Council.

“We therefore had no other option but to spend substantial amounts of time and resources to resolve the matter. We are delighted that the principle of player representation on the SARU Executive Council has now been confirmed,” Heymans added.

“The principle of player representation is an important one in professional rugby and in other sporting codes. Because the players are one of the most important stakeholders they must have representation at the highest level of the sport.

“It is always better to be at the coalface of decisions and be proactive in dealing with problems rather than be reactive and not being near the decision – making process,” concluded Heymans.

SARPA was represented by Alisdair Sholto-Douglas, Adv. Attie Heyns and attorney Peter Hill of Cluver Markotter in Stellenbosch.