Travel agents can arrange accommodation, transfers and other travel services for clients attending Springbok matches – but they cannot simply source match tickets through ordinary retail channels and bundle them into packages for resale.
The South African Rugby Union (SARU) has clarified the rules for the trade following the ticketing debacle surrounding the recent Springboks-All Blacks test at Cape Town’s DHL Stadium in August for The Greatest Rivalry Tour 2026. Several travel companies were left scrambling when they were unable to deliver tickets they had promised clients.
According to Daily Maverick, several operators purchased tickets for their clients from external suppliers but were unable to provide them in time for the match.
The legislation
While certain agencies claimed that the non-fulfilment of the tickets was the fault of SA Rugby, SARU told Travel News that agencies and operators who were promising tickets to the event were in contravention of the Safety at Sports and Recreational Events Act (SASREA), the event’s terms and conditions of sale (T&Cs) and the Consumer Protection Act (CPA).
In terms of Section 5(2) of SASREA, it is an offence to obtain, sell, promote or package tickets for commercial purposes without prior written authorisation from the event organiser, stadium or venue owner. This is reinforced by official ticketing T&Cs.
“Agencies sold the promise of tickets they did not have – and could not secure – for the Test in breach of the event's terms and conditions of sale, and without ever having been given access by SA Rugby or its ticketing agency,” SARU said in a statement.
In this particular instance, the agencies could be subject to action from SAPS for potentially breaching SASREA legislation, as well as the CPA, because they failed to deliver the tickets, said a SARU spokesperson.
Who authorises ticket sales?
Under the SASREA Act, the event organiser for the Springboks vs. All Blacks Greatest Rivalry Test Match at Cape Town’s DHL Stadium was SARU.
However, the event organisers differ depending on the particular sports event. For example, World Rugby is the organiser of international Rugby World Cup matches, FIFA is the organiser of FIFA World Cup and the International Cricket Council is the organiser of the Cricket World Cup.
The official event organiser holds the statutory authority to sanction ticket sales and travel packages. The event organiser announces its official travel agencies, travel partners and official distributors prior to the sports event, with specific T&Cs for each channel.
The authorised channels
Tickets for Springboks matches, including the Tests, the HSBC Rugby Sevens Cape Town and most other SA Rugby events, are officially sold on the Springboks Ticketing Site, powered by Ticketmaster, and certain match tickets are also officially sold by Tourvest’s SA Rugby Travel, as SARU’s Official Supporters Travel Partner.
According to the Springboks Ticketmaster Ticketing Site’s T&Cs, restrictions apply to the resale and transfer of tickets bought through the platform:
- Tickets cannot be sold or transferred alongside any added benefits, such as accommodation, travel, hospitality, food, drink or parking.
- Resale above face value is strictly forbidden. All valid secondary transfers or sales must go through SARU's official Ticket Exchange and never through secondary ticketing websites, auction sites or third-party providers.
Non-compliant tickets would be rendered void without refund, said the T&Cs, and SARU explicitly retains the right to publicise the names of non-compliant resellers across media channels and hand their details over to law enforcement agencies.
What agents can do
While agents and operators cannot resell or repackage rugby tickets obtained via Ticketmaster, they may buy certain rugby tickets from SA Rugby Travel on behalf of their travellers. In the case of the Test match, SA Rugby Travel was SARU’s Official Supporters Travel Partner.
According to SA Rugby Travel’s T&Cs, an agent or tour operator may buy an event ticket from SA Rugby Travel on behalf of their clients.
While agents may not misrepresent themselves as individual retail consumers to acquire packages for unauthorised reselling, SA Rugby Travel is an authorised B2B channel that allows agents or operators to procure their clients’ tickets and provide them alongside their own agency services, such as customised ground transport, accommodation and tour packages, subject to the travellers’ needs.
