Jerry Sexton logged on to the umpteenth Zoom meeting of the summer, and saw the comforting face of Rassie Erasmus on the screen.
At the Sexton family home in Dublin, he listened optimistically as the good and the great of South African rugby attempted to reassure him and his Southern Kings colleagues.
Andre Rademan, chairman of the Southern Kings board, was online. Jurie Roux, South Africa Rugby Union's CEO, had logged in. Even Erasmus, the coaching genius who had led the Springboks to a near miraculous Rugby World Cup title months earlier, joined in.
“We were told our contracts would all be honoured, ‘you have my word’, they said,” Sexton says. “All your contracts will be honoured.
“Rassie was speaking about how he can’t wait to see us play, to see the new talent coming through. The SARU were on board now, so I was delighted, training hard at home and making plans to get back.”
The conference call was a necessary one. Rumours had swirled around the Kings franchise since April, when the players’ salaries were over a week late, despite them taking 30-40 per cent pay cuts.
By this point, Sexton, his wife Diana and toddler Lily – born just seven months earlier – had raced home as South Africa was placed in a hardcore Covid-19 lockdown, with police and military forces on the streets.
Leaving “half our life” in their rented home, they assumed a return would be just weeks away. Sexton was sent a strenuous training regime by the Pro 14 team’s strength and conditioning staff, which he would record and send back.
The hard fact is that the Kings are insolvent, with significant debts and zero assets, and it would have been reckless of the board to continue to trade
“The staff were excellent, and Robbie [Kempson, head coach] was on every week. I’d record the fitness sessions on my phone and watches, gathering GPS data, sending over sessions and stuff . . . it was really well run.
“But at the end of April, we didn’t get paid on time and a few questions began to be raised. When Covid-19 hit, the money coming in from games dried up and the owners got a bail out from the Eastern Cape organisation. That got us through a couple of months but in June the whispers got louder.”
The growing noise was that the national union would take over from the majority shareholders, the ironically titled Greatest Rugby Company in the Whole Wide World. It soon came true.
“The Kings shareholders, the Eastern Province Rugby Union [EPRU] and SA Rugby, took the decision in the face of an accumulated deficit of R55 million [€3.8 million], and with zero income in prospect for the remainder of 2020,” a club statement explained.
This move gave SARU a 74 per cent shareholding in the Pro 14 side, the second time the union had to take control of the troubled franchise.
Seeing the heavyweights at SARU come on board gave players a sense of confidence, but it was misplaced. In late August the Kings voluntarily withdrew from the Pro 14 competition, as well as the historic Currie Cup, leaving some players in need of counselling.
By September the board had decided to stop “throwing good money after bad” and liquidated the company in charge of the Kings.
“The hard fact is that the Kings are insolvent, with significant debts and zero assets, and it would have been reckless of the board to continue to trade,” Rademan reasoned.
The guillotine was lowered live on Zoom.
“If they’d told us at the start, ‘we’re f***ed, we have no money’, I’d have said ‘that’s okay, fair enough’, because it’s a global situation, everyone’s lost jobs, it’s a major situation,” Sexton says now.
At the end, the Zoom call cut off abruptly, and that was that. Players were shouting 'you gave us guarantees, we have families . . . '
“It’s the lack of honesty that kills you, not my personal situation. I just wanted them to be honest. But you’ve people like Rassie telling us we’ll be playing in September or October, and everyone else telling the coaches, the players, the manager even, that we’ll be okay.
“I was planning to go back in late August, I had sent letters to the two embassies trying to get an exemption to travel, but I’m so happy it didn’t go through.
“At the start of September, it was like SARU just disappeared. Rademan, who was head of Eastern Province never really had a good relationship with Kings, so I think he just wanted us gone.
“Braam van Straaten [the club’s assistant coach] had called it – he told them we needed to know if they were planning to liquidate us or not pay us, but he was told ‘no, we’ll be paying you’.
“Some boys got contract offers abroad, and were told they couldn’t go. Then on September 19th, we hear we’re liquidated, just days before we were due to be paid.
“If they’d told us back in June, we’d be okay . . . we didn’t have the best track record in terms of winning games or generating money. It would have been taken a lot better if they just told us.
“At the end, the Zoom call cut off abruptly, and that was that. Players were shouting ‘you gave us guarantees, we have families . . . ”
Thirty-six players and 16 staff lost their jobs that day. MyPlayers, South Africa’s player union, issued a strongly worded statement.
"In the current market, players are unlikely to find employment elsewhere, which makes the timing of this decision, six days before salaries were due, downright cold-blooded," chief executive Eugene Henning said.
Some players have since picked up clubs, but Van Straaten, the former Springbok outhalf, has been running online auctions to fundraise for others.
Just one year into a three-year deal, Sexton, who says he loved his time in South Africa despite the ultimately disheartening ending, is not expecting to see any money anytime soon.
“I don’t know the ins and outs . . . but we were trying to get a case together, to get represented and see if we can get money we’re owed. We’ll know in a few weeks if we’ve anything to fight for. If not, we’ll have to suck it up.
“I wouldn’t take any money from the fundraisers, that’s for boys who were in serious trouble, who have kids and mortgages.
“We’ve seen the pics in South Africa, of people queuing for food parcels . . . so I’m not giving out that I lost a job in rugby. Nobody’s angry about that . . . it was the misleading and the lies.”
Sexton lined out for AIL club St Mary’s until lockdown resumed this autumn, and last week completed a two-month spell in construction, where he swapped rising high at lineouts to building industrial shelving with a friend’s company ‘Gmac’.
“It’s not the best time to look for a normal job, is it,” Sexton says, with a half-hearted laugh.
Overall, South Africa was a very good experience. I loved the club, and the staff were excellent. We loved it, we've nothing bad to say about the place
“You can’t go into town and send CVs around. There’s no work experience in offices.
“When I heard the news from South Africa it threw me into a whirlwind, but I heard Gerry McCormack and Gmac were looking for some workers. I’d happily labour to get out of the house, and keep going for a while.”
A move to the English Championship in the New Year is a possibility for Sexton, who has experience in that division with London Irish and Jersey Reds, but hopes for a Zoom call with news of a cash windfall from South Africa seem unlikely.
“If I get anything in the next two years, it will be like a little savings account,” he said. “I’ve never had it, so I’m not planning on it.
“Overall, South Africa was a very good experience. I loved the club, and the staff were excellent. We loved it, we’ve nothing bad to say about the place. It’s a beautiful country, the restaurants were lovely and we’d great facilities. It might be dangerous in some parts, but everywhere’s dangerous to some degree.”
Just like Sexton, the Kings’ future is up in the air right now, with next season’s Pro 16 set-up looking more than likely to include four other South African teams – the Bulls, the Sharks, the Lions and the Stormers, with 2017-18 quarter finalists Cheetahs left flailing in the wings.
“As a rugby fan, honestly, that’s the best set-up for the league,” Sexton argues. “It’s harder to take for the Cheetahs as they reached the playoffs a couple of years ago, but the competition does need to be more competitive and it will be with the Super Rugby sides.
“It would be naive to think we’d [Kings] stay in. Those four sides will bring the whole standard of rugby up, and make Irish teams stand up and fight even more.”
