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Cape Town - Three prominent Springboks along with head coach John Dobson reportedly threatened the Western Province Rugby Union (WPRU) over financial insecurities.
Afrikaans newspaper Rapport indicated on Sunday that the three top Springboks had threatened, through their lawyers, to sue for damages if the union failed to keep its promises.
The report added that Dobson, who will be taking over as Stormers coach next year, had threatened to resign along with his entire coaching staff if the players didn't get the contracts they were promised.
This forced the union's professional arm to obtain the money from elsewhere.
The players were verbally assured of their contracts but took action when doubts were raised over the financial situation of the cash-strapped union.
A report last weekend highlighted the WP Rugby's dire financial situation and indicated that it was only able to pay its employees one more month's salary.
However, last Friday the union calmed those fears when they said the contracts that were promised were drawn up and that staff had been reassured over salaries.
The Rapport story indicated that banking giant Investec could become involved - which would alleviate some of the financial woes of the union.
The report indicated that Investec was busy negotiating with WP Rugby over the naming rights of Newlands, however this was strongly denied by the union on Monday.
"DHL is and will remain the naming rights sponsor of the Newlands Rugby Stadium. The stadium is known as DHL Newlands in terms of a longstanding sponsorship agreement," a WP Rugby spokesperson told Sport24.
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