The head of SANZAAR has rubbished claims made earlier this month that the Springboks would soon be leaving the Rugby Championship to join an expanded Six Nations.
After a British report earlier this month suggested the world champions were headed north after the 2023 Rugby World Cup, SANZAAR chief executive Andy Marinos has finally made a comment on the claims while speaking at a function in Sydney.
The former Wales centre said yesterday there were plenty of reasons for such a report to come out but they were unfounded.
"I think you've got to take a step back and just realise where we are in the world rugby political landscape right now," Marinos said.
"There's elections coming up in May, there's a whole lot of positioning and jostling going on. There's going to be a couple of outrageous statements that have been thrown across the bow.
"Having played in and administered in the UK for a number of years, the likelihood of Six Nations opening up their borders anymore; they've learned a hard lesson, they went from five to six with Italy. I've just put a bit of a reality check with that.
Since Italy joined the competition and made it the Six Nations in 2000, they have struggled immensely against the competition, taking the wooden spoon 14 of the last 19 years. That form looks to continue this year with the Azzurri winless from their first three Tests and sitting bottom of the table.
Marinos said the reports were "media speculation" and he'd been told by South Africa they are committed to the current broadcast deal they share with New Zealand, Australia and Argentina, which ends in 2025.
"The second thing that I think is really important for stakeholders both in Africa and Sydney and the rest of SANZAAR is our South African directors have been pretty clear with us.
"It's nothing more than media speculation and I think someone's just trying to stoke a little bit of fire."
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