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Cape Town - The South African Rugby Union (SARU) received a significant financial boost after agreeing on the Wales-Springbok Test in Cardiff late last year, Netwerk24 reports.
According to SARU's annual report, the federation made a net income of R15.46m for away Springbok Tests in 2014.
The game against Wales in Cardiff fell out of World Rugby's Test window, which saw SARU receive a significant monetary boost for agreeing to play the game.
Critics lamented the fact that the Boks lost the game 12-6 and also paid a heavy price by losing captain Jean de Villiers to a serious knee injury.
But SARU CEO Jurie Roux sees things in a different light.
"Reflecting back, a lot of people say we should never have played that match because the Boks lost and the captain got injured. But you cannot argue like that," said Roux.
SARU reported a group profit before taxation of R6.6m for the year ended December 31, 2014, R5m ahead of budget and the fourth successive year of profit.
However, a deferred taxation charge of R4.7m resulted in after tax profit declined to R1.9m.
"The consistent theme over recent years has been the extreme financial pressure being felt in all corners of the game," Roux continued.
"Once again, we went on a cost-cutting exercise in mid-year which allowed us to report a small surplus in a very tough financial year.
"It was the fourth successive year of surplus for our organisation - the longest consecutive surplus period in the past 22 years."
Roux said that he expected economic conditions to remain unchanged in the short term but hoped that new broadcast and sponsorship agreements from 2016 would ease some of the pressures.
