Cape Town - SA Rugby CEO Jurie Roux confirmed on Friday that they had been informed that Namibia's Welwitschias will withdraw from the Currie Cup First Division.

“It’s unfortunate that the Namibian team had to withdraw from the Currie Cup First Division, but our decision was that they have to pay for teams to travel to Windhoek for their home games, which they agreed to do,” Roux said via a press statement.

“We’ve since been informed that they can’t do that anymore and that the Windhoek Draught Welwitschias will withdraw from the competition, which means that all remaining teams will now have a bye on the weekend they were scheduled to play the Namibians.”

This comes after it was reported earlier in the week that Namibia had managed to raise funds of up to R900 000 to carry the travel expenses of teams like the Leopards, Griffons and Border when they play in Namibia.

The Leopards last week indicated their intent to forfeit the points in some of their away matches due to financial constraints.

The Potchefstroom-based union was considering not travelling for their away matches against Namibia, Border and Eastern Province.

The Leopards indicated that this was due to SA Rugby’s recent decision to cut the budgets of smaller unions by 52%.

The Namibians were due to host the Griffons at the Hage Geingob Stadium in Windhoek on Saturday.

ALSO READ: Leopards say goodbye to 98-year-old Olën Park