Skinstad must prove his worth
January 29, 2001

The South African Rugby Football Union may offer Bob Skinstad a Springbok contract in May if he proves his fitness in the Super 12.

A group of 29 Boks signed contracts on Friday. Western Province wing Breyton Paulse will be offered a contract on his return from the World Cup Sevens in Argentina.

The contracts will be reviewed after the Super 12 and again later in the year. This is when Skinstad can prove to Viljoen that he is back to his best again and has completely recovered from the knee injury that kept him out of rugby for 14 months.

Several players were reported to be unhappy with their contracts. They said they had been bullied into signing the contracts and some had received a two-thirds pay cut.

Viljoen dismissed these reports. He told Rapport that he spoke to each player about their contract and left it up to them to accept the contract. He said all had signed immediately.

According to Rapport, the contracts may be smaller, but are still very attractive and worth quite a few thousand a month.

It is believed that a promotion clause in the contracts has upset some of the players. Sarfu have included certain promotion clauses that clashes with some of the players' individual sponsorship.

Sarfu's communications manager Anthony Mackaiser told Rapport: "The players are employees of Sarfu and we have obligations to our sponsors. When the players are playing for the Springboks they have to honour our sponsors."

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