- EP Elephants mentor Peter de Villiers believes there is money available "out there" for him to make the necessary signings that will revive his team.
- De Villiers says he has at least three different sustainability models that he can present to potential benefactors to convince them to invest.
- Details will indeed be important as two liquidations in five years don't inspire much confidence in EP rugby's professional structures.
Two liquidations of its business arm over the last five years might've made it less attractive to invest in Eastern Province rugby, but Peter de Villiers, the Elephants' head coach, believes there is funding available to revive his team.
The former Springbok mentor throughout the preparation series has made no secret of the fact he desperately needs even a small infusion of proven performers to surround his promising band of rookies and develop them into better players.
Some of the leading franchises, notably the Stormers and Bulls, had indicated previously that they would be willing to help out though that would probably entail sending out-of-favour squad members.
What the Elephants need are stalwarts and stalwarts cost money.
"That's maybe our biggest challenge at the moment. As I sit here, the funds probably aren't available," De Villiers said after his charges ended the preparation series win-less.
"But I know that there is money out there. I know there are people that would be willing to make funds available to us."
For that to happen, De Villiers, his players and Eastern Province Rugby will have to convince potential benefactors that they have a sustainable player model and remind them of the region's rich rugby-playing history.
"It's going to be about swaying people's heads. We've had an unfortunate recent history of not using money effectively, but I firmly believe I have at least three viable models that I can present to people," said De Villiers.
"I know they will be willing to listen to us, to better understand what we're trying to do here and how they can help us achieve our objective."
While it's apparent to many, including De Villiers, that the majority of his essentially amateur squad simply don't possess the necessary class to be competitive at franchise level, there were a few unknown players who definitely deserve the opportunity to grow.
"When we played our first match against the Bulls, I had only seen (captain) Inny (Radebe) play beforehand. I hadn't ever seen the rest of the players," De Villiers admitted.
"I had to prepare these guys and it was a shock to me too to see how some of them unfortunately aren't equipped to play at this level. I was appointed quite late, so I had to inherit a group on the basis of other people's convictions and suggestions.
"But what I can say is that some of them have really shown that they can be competitive, even if it's sometimes just in a few isolated areas of the game. We've learnt a lot and we've grown."
His skipper, Radebe - one of the few squad members with meaningful first-class experience - is clearly an ally in this process and has pleaded with the broader rugby community to be patient.
"It's been a quite big step-up for a lot of our players. For some of them, this preparation series was the biggest stage they've played on to date," said the talented flyhalf.
"It's just going to take some time. We've put in a lot of hard work and we've improved in certain areas over time. For now, it's really about going back to Gqeberha and sticking it out, working really hard.
"All we need is to play more and then we'll get better. There's a lot of tradition."