When Absa pulled out of their Springbok sponsorship last November, it seemed no-one wanted to touch the Boks with a bargepole. The termination letter to SA Rugby CEO Jurie Roux from Barclays Africa was dated Friday 13 — never a good omen. The move was prompted by, among many things, SA Rugby’s seeming lack of transformation. It left the organisation so vulnerable that it looked as if the Boks would go into the June tests against Ireland without a sponsor’s logo on their chests. It seemed crazy that one of the biggest brands in SA sport couldn’t attract a title sponsor. While new Springbok coach Allister Coetzee was figuring out which players to select, SA Rugby’s new commercial chief Tsholo Kubheka and Megapro had sleepless nights trying to secure a new sponsor. But in stepped Blue Label Telecoms, with a unique sponsorship model dubbed in the streets as "pay-as-you-go". When the Levy brothers, Mark and Brett, of Blue Label said "I do" to SA Rugby, it wasn’t the long-term commitment ...
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