“Like us, they’ve signed agreements with their broadcasters through 2025 to be involved with SANZAAR”
A media report that South Africa are contemplating a move away from southern hemisphere rugby’s SANZAAR (South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina Rugby) alliance to join an expanded Six Nations in 2024 have been denied by New Zealand Rugby, with television agreements in place until 2025.
Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper reported on Saturday that South Africa would join the existing Six Nations countries and abandon Super Rugby and the Rugby Championship after the next World Cup in France in 2023, saying that “negotiations have been going on behind the scenes for some time and there is now a sense of inevitability that the Springboks will take their place in Europe’s annual Test tournament in 2024.”
The unsourced report had few details and did not take account of the fact South Africa had signed a new broadcast contract to stay in SANZAAR until 2025, something New Zealand Rugby (NZR) Chief Executive Mark Robinson confirmed on Sunday.
“Like us, they’ve signed agreements with their broadcasters through 2025 to be involved with SANZAAR,” Robinson told New Zealand’s Radio Sport yesterday.
