Flip van der Merwe
It has emerged that a contractual dispute with the South African Rugby Union (SARU) is the reason behind Vodacom Bulls lock Flip van der Merwe making himself unavailable for Springbok selection.
Bok coach Heyneke Meyer earlier this week said Van der Merwe was “unavailable for international rugby at the moment”.
The reasons behind Van der Merwe’s unavailability were described as “personal”.
However, Van der Merwe and SARU are at loggerheads because the player feels he was done an injustice when Springbok contacts were awarded.
Unlike lock partners Eben Etzebeth, Victor Matfield and Pieter-Steph du Toit, Van der Merwe apparently did not receive a similar national contract.
Van der Merwe will apparently only make himself available for Springbok selection once the dispute is settled.
Flip is the 2nd Springbok player involved in a contractual dispute with SARU in the last year. Cell C Sharks utility back Francois Steyn also made himself unavailable for the Springboks after failing to reach an agreement with SARU last season.
Neewat ou Flip, jy stel my teleur… so doen mens dit nie!
Jy moet maar klaarmaak in SA en jou ding by Clermont gaan doen, en nooit weer ‘n Springbok kans kry nie, so maklik as dit!
@ grootblousmile:
You don’t think that players should be thinking about their financial well being?
Or do you think the honour of representing your country is above all else?
It seems as if the player in this case kept his issues within the correct circles. He didn’t go to the press crying foul did he?
Or am I missing something?
I am also with Flip, If my employer was offering me less than I am worth, I would also show them a toffee.
What does SARPA do?
But no Flip should rather just bend over and meet the demands of SARU because it is considered an honor to be selected 🙄
2 @ Scrumdown:
Yeah, of course they should think about their financial well-being… but there are limits to certain things.
To play for your country is the biggest rung and honour you can reach in your sport.. and to me that is where simple loyalty and pride surpasses contractual disputes and sideshows.
Yeah he kept it quiet, but at the same time he quietly said “Fuck the Springbok jersey”… and that is where my problem lies!
You can (and there has been a big number of these occurances) continue your contractual disputes on the side, in the quiet, without losing any of your rights or remedies in Law in those circumstances, without cheapening the jersey with your “I’m bigger than the national cause” antics.
Once the money becomes bigger than the sport and national interests to you… then PLEASE do not ever wear the national jersey again, because you are actually considering the Springboks just another team, another game, another series… and then, if that is where your priorities lie… bugger off after the yen or Euro or Pound!
In fact, he can Fuckoff in front of my face, out of the Springboks.. out of my teams.
That’s my viewpoint.
There are certain moral values one does not exchange for a few extra schickles…
To me it borders on the unnatural or criminal, to be honest… but hey, that’s how I see it and how highly I rate the Springbok jersey!
Let me explain my last statement by means of example… if you can make heaps and heaps of money robbing Cash-in-Transit vans in stead of making pretty decent money in operating them whilst your boss is a bit of a big doos… would it be the correct thing to jump the fence and to join the robbers? No, of course it is not, because it is against moral fibre and against what is right and what is wrong.
To me exactly the same principle applies!
Flip gives Juanitje de Jongh a run for his money in the best law enforcement Tache stakes.
@ grootblousmile:
Where do you draw the line then?
In an extreme sense
If SARU decided tomorrow that they are not paying the players anymore, they offer 4 free tickets to the game and R5000 spending money. because just playign for the Bokke should be enough.
And if the players do not fit in they should just F off?
@ grootblousmile:
for the life of me I highly doubt that you base your own professional career on those same principles, and rugby is not any different anymore IMO
So flip is throwing a wobble because he didn’t get a contract?
6 @ MacroSssss:
SARU is just the Management Body of SA Rugby, it is not the country… and THEY are not the Springboks unto themselves!
IF they had to fuck around like that, and my views on SARU fucking around with SA Rugby is well known… then go moer them silly in Court!
My loyalty does not lie with SARU as a body, my loyalty lies with my Currie Cup team, Super Rugby Franchise and my country.
I understand that we have an era of “The Global Village”, specially amongst your younger generation, where the sense of national pride is no longer strong.. where modern life revolves around what can I get out of it… but my sense and sensibilities are still old-fashioned… and I am happy to be of THAT old style ilk.
If to you it’s OK, what he is doing, so be it but grant me the right to say it’s not the way I live and perceive things.
If everybody who didn’t have a bok contract made themselves unavailable then that would leave us quite short.
Having said that giving psdt a contract is on a par with giving jj engelbrecht one.
@ grootblousmile:
I understand that it is a professional sport and SARU is an integral part that simply cannot be ignored, this isnt club rugby or the 80’s anymore.
There is always pride, personally I take pride in my job as well and I enjoy it, but i refuse to just sit down and shutup when my employer farks me around and SARU is Flip’s employer. It is not any different for professional sportsman.
7 @ MacroSssss:
Of course I base my own life around those principles…
Let me give you just 2 short examples…
I have been offered many, many opportunities overseas… due to the skills I have, but I opted to stay in SA, around my culture, my language, my family and friends, my way of life, my sport, my belongings.
Second one, practicing as a Lawyer years ago, I drew the line on moral issues many times… for instance I always looked after the interests of children first in a divorce situation, not the interests of my paying client, because I considered my obligation in terms of what was right bigger than what was lucrative. The moment I became a father, I also realised what the value and responsibility and privalege it was to have children and I did not do 1 more child abuse defence case… because it clashed with my values.
@ gunther:
That is where SARPA should come in, fark knows what they are doing, they havent updated their Facebook page in nearly 2 years so they do not seem very active. So by the looks of it this is bound to happen again.
It seems that the whole world is no at that point, where people tend to ignore your grievances till you decide to take action.
Flip easily has another 3 to 4 years of rugby in him. Or maybe SARU is reviewing its foreign based players policy?
Still too many unanswered questions to make an informed judgement, therefore I am not supporting Flips against, but I wont condemn it, however this is the second time in two years SARU been in this situation… en waar daar ‘n rokie trek…
12 @ grootblousmile:
Who is to say Flip isnt looking after the interests of his children as well?
Those comparisons seem like comparing apples with oranges…
hmmm okay say your client comes, you fixed his PC and installed new parts. The client butters you up, he insists that you probably love doing your job and offers to pay the cost price for the new components he will also throw in a pie and a coke for your efforts.
Do you accept?
looks like Wiaan Liebenberg is also off to join Jake.
Marcel van der Merwe as well? eish
@ MacroSssss:
Saru can’t contract everyone I don’t think this is a SARPA issue at all.
You can’t have every player who feels he ought to have a contract running to their union.
😆
Flip is free to do what he wants as is Saru.
If that means he watches the Workd Cup on his flat screen so be it.
😆
14 @ MacroSssss:
You are confusing day to day economic activities with playing for your supreme national team, the Springboks!
If SARU was a client of mine, who did not want to pay me.. do you expect me to turn my back on the Springboks and my country’s rugby?
Or do you expect me to support the Springboks and get a judgment against SARU and execute a warrant against their property to set things straigt?
In your example, where does that tansaction involve the national side or the country for that matter? Of course the client would kak, because not only do I know and have I practiced the Law in this country (and thus have the means to ride him till kingdom comes), but because of principal he would be wrong and I would be right.
Now consider the Flip scenario again… is his fight with a corrupt and unjust SARU or is his fight with the Springboks and the Country?
Once you determine THAT and once you determine what is acceptable (in your own eyes, not mine), it would decide for you whether Flip is trying to “punish” or “spite” the right party. If YOU see SARU and the Springboks / Country as ONE… then your decision would ride with Flip. If however you are able to accept that SARU are just in a fiduciary position and duty towards rugby in SA and are not per se the Springboks, then you might come to a totally different conclusion…. as I have.
For the SAME measure, then answer me this… is Jacob Zuma South Africa, or does he just stand in a responsible and very fiduciary duty towards South Africa?
Would saying I despise Jacob Zuma and what he stands for then equate to I despise South Africa… surely not!!
gunther wrote:
hahaha well yes they can sort out their own crap, afterall we have not been armed with much facts other than Flip saying it is a personnel matter.
I also can’t see this as being similar to the toys Frankie Steyn threw out of his cot.
His issue was that Saru had reneged on an agreement between to parties.
Unless I am missing something there is no agreement in Flips case ?
Unless everything Nama says about Heyneke is true and the Bulls where all promised contracts ?
😆
18 @ grootblousmile:
I can in no way say that Flip or for that manner, Fransie is not proud of playing for the Boks or representing South Africa, I am sure it is definitely not a decision taken lightly to go on strike I am also unaware, how long the two parties has been at an impasse, 2 weeks? 2 months? 2 years? Do we know?
So yes it does involve the national side and representing the country, but surely someone somewhere will draw a line in the sand or SARU will just abuse the “privilege” of playing for the Springboks in the way they treat and pay the professional sportsmen that wear the green and gold. If SARU does indeed abuse, underpay, treat certain players unfairly then it will have wider consequences than just Flip vd Merwe… So it is definitely a situation where both SARU and the player needs to meet each other halfway.
So from my perspective, SARU and the Springboks are 2 different entities, but from any players’ it would be one in the same.
eh jacob?
matter* 😆
Flip could also be the one that suspects unfair treatment, does he want a bigger contract than local players even though he is going overseas.
Or
This grievance could have been raised months ago and could have been the reason he signed with Clermont?
Flip was very vague about this in February this year
“Flip has been a loyal servant to the Vodacom Bulls since 2009 and always made it clear that he would consider offers from abroad after the 2015 Rugby World Cup, especially as he does not have a Springbok contract.”
21 @ MacroSssss:
We differ… let us continue to differ!
@ grootblousmile:
🙂 lets
There’s an old saying.. well a few of them which apply.
1. Nobody is irreplaceable… except me of course… hehehe
2. Cut your nose to spite your face.
Has anyone heard of Armageddon cave in the north west?
grootblousmile wrote:
haha like i said in post 7
I’m guessing there are 2 types of Boks?
Those that have a contract and get paid match fees, and those, like Pollard currently, who are probably paid per match.
Like Flip would have been should he have been available?
Should Pollard refuse to play for the Boks because he doesn’t have a contract?
I suppose it’s up to the individual, but in this case it seems like the player is over inflating his own worth by demanding a long term contract, while the coach might view him as a short term or stop gap measure.
Flip doesn’t owe anything to the Boks or to HM
He has the option to start earning hard currency in August while not been offered a similar SARU contract to that of Matfield and Etzbeth, it’s not that complicate 😉
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