La Motte Wanderers Rugby Club have reached out to Minister of Sports, Arts, and Culture Gayton McKenzie and SA Rugby after their formal request to play their Boland has been denied by the Western Province Rugby Football Union (WPRFU).
In a press release issued by club chairman Dennis Boonzaaier, he details the club’s grievances with the WPRFU and requests that McKenzie “urgently intervene”. The release also asks that McKenzie "investigate the basis of WP Rugby’s claims and its refusal to release La Motte RFC players (footprint)” and “protect the rights of players and clubs to compete freely within unions that best support their aspirations.”
More clubs to follow?
Paarl Rugby Club and Cloetesville Rugby Club have also reportedly submitted formal requests – which were also denied - to play their rugby in Boland.
La Motte, who play in the WPRFU’s Metro League, aren’t officially affiliated with Western Province. Despite this, the WPRFU has opposed their affiliation with Boland, citing geographical boundaries. La Motte applied for affiliation with the Boland Rugby Union and was accepted by Boland during an Annual General Meeting in November 2024.
In February 2025, they were invited to the members' meeting as fully-affiliated members. WP Rugby, however, asserts that Boland Rugby had no right to accept La Motte, despite other clubs in the Drakenstein and Stellenbosch municipal areas being affiliated with Boland Rugby Union.
SARU have indicated that the issue needs to be resolved between WP and Boland and that their legal department would not consider the matter unless it is formally tabled as an agenda by either of the two unions. The WPRFU, however, nonetheless insist that La Motte participate in their league.
A spokesperson for La Motte has confirmed that they have not yet received any direct feedback from McKenzie and that they have acquired legal representation to assess the legality of the WPRFU's actions.
The club are also encouraging the community and supporters to offer their support through an online petition.
Unresolved issues resurface
There are contentious borders between WP and Boland in sport. In the Paarl and Stellenbosch regions, rugby is the only sporting code that is affiliated with WP; all other sports fall under Boland.
In January, Telecom Asia Sport reported on a meeting involving administrators from Western Province-affiliated clubs discussing the possibility of leaving the union.
During the meeting, a number of administrators and community members from Wellington and Paarl brainstormed a way forward for rugby clubs in Paarl.
While Western Province Rugby administrators were invited to attend the discussion, they did not respond to the invitation. The discussion stemmed from unhappiness with the current state of rugby in Paarl, with a key point in the meeting being the dissatisfaction with WP and their alleged lack of support to Paarl Rugby, who chose to affiliate with WP instead of Boland after unification.
Nothing gained from urgent meeting called by WPRFU
On 19 March 2025, La Motte Rugby Club were invited to an urgent meeting with the WPRFU at the Paul Roos Markotter Longroom. The meeting, which took place the following day, was called to discuss the status of the club and the way forward in the presence of Boland Rugby.
However, the meeting turned out to be a fruitless one. La Motte left the gathering and in a statement following the sit-down, Boonzaaier wrote:
La Motte is appalled by the unethical manner the meeting was run, no attendance register, no agenda, and it was insisted by Mr Danny Jones [WPRFU general manager of amateur rugby], that no recordings of the meeting will be allowed.
It is now the second time that WPRFU argues that La Motte is situated within the boundaries of WPRFU, which they cannot prove with reference to any legislative document or binding agreement.
La Motte acknowledges that WPRFU accommodated the club to play rugby in its special leagues and competitions. However, the club was never affiliated to the WP Union, and it has failed for years to obtain affiliation statusю
At the time of publication, Telecom Asia Sport’s request for comment from Jones was unanswered.
