Cape Town - SA Rugby appears to be in dire financial straits after the rugby governing body did a presentation in front of the Portfolio Committee of Sport and Recreation in parliament on Tuesday.

According to the EWN website, SA Rugby suffered a net loss of R62 million in 2017.

The reasons for the heavy loss were attributed to the failed 2023 Rugby World Cup bid and the costs involved in getting the Cheetahs and Southern Kings into the PRO14.

SA Rugby stated that sponsorships of up to R38.5 million did not materialise due to the lost World Cup bid, which surprisingly went to France.

The cost of getting the Cheetahs and Kings into the PRO14 was said to be R33 million.

Recently it had become apparent that SA Rugby was struggling financially when it made the controversial decision to cut the budgets of smaller unions by 52%.

This has left the unions fighting for survival, with the Leopards recently indicating they were ready to forfeit the points in some of their Currie Cup First Division away matches due to financial constraints.

Negotiations with the Namibia Rugby Union (NRU) also broke down after SA Rugby had hoped that the NRU would help carry the travel expenses of the SA teams who travelled to Windhoek for Currie Cup First Division games. Namibia subsequently withdrew from the competition last Friday, with SA Rugby saying the NRU couldn't carry the costs anymore.

In November last year, South Africa looked set to beat France, Italy and Ireland for the rights to host the 2023 World Cup.

However, World Rugby’s Council opted to overturn a recommendation that South Africa should host the tournament and instead voted for France to host the tournament in a secret ballot.