SA Rugby could pull the plug on its Investec Champions Cup participation as it moves to ease the strain on players who are carrying a near year-round workload. The governing body is now openly weighing whether the European Rugby Champions Cup still fits its calendar, after South African sides again struggled to turn the competition into results.

Mark Alexander, the SA Rugby president, said the union would hold a workshop in July to decide which competitions should be retained and which ones can be dropped. He said players cannot be expected to play 11 months of the year, adding that the union must find a balance between income and recovery. “We generate our income from participating in tournaments. Participation is important, but our players are overworked,” Alexander said, according to remarks made after the union’s annual meeting.

The debate has sharpened because South Africa now has one foot in two seasons at once. After aligning its club calendar with the northern hemisphere when its teams joined the United Rugby Championship, the country still competes in the Rugby Championship in the south, leaving some Test stars on the go all year round without a proper pre-season. South African teams were invited into Europe’s top club competition after a season in the URC, but the move has brought heavy travel and little reward. No South African side went beyond the round of 16 this season.

The strain has not been only physical. South African teams have had to absorb long-haul travel for Champions Cup fixtures, while weakened selections from clubs in France, England and the Republic have also chipped away at the competition’s credibility. That has fed the sense inside SA Rugby that the tournament may not be delivering enough back for what the players are being asked to give.

There is also a wider calendar problem waiting in the background. One option raised before is shifting the Rugby Championship to February and March, a move South Africa would support. Rugby Australia was at one stage thought to be on board, but New Zealand Rugby has emerged as the main obstacle and has so far refused to move. Any shift would likely require Super Rugby Pacific to be moved as well, making the prospect difficult to land even before the July workshop begins.

For now, the issue is no longer theoretical. SA Rugby is talking about dropping competitions, not just managing them, and the Champions Cup is among the fixtures under review. If the union decides that player welfare and workload have to come first, one of Europe’s most prominent club tournaments could lose a South African presence sooner than many in the game expected.