One of the reasons held up by SARU for not being able to get rid of the underperforming Springbok coaching staff of Peter de Villiers, Gary Gold and Dick Muir was that they would not be able to afford to pay out the remainder of the coaches’ contracts. Now, in a situation of supreme irony, it appears that SARU does have the money to be able to fire them all. Where did it come from? The Springboks played so poorly in the Tri Nations that SARU was not required to pay out performance and win bonuses totalling R4 million. It turns out that this is more than enough to buy out the coaching team’s contracts – with change to spare.