South African rugby was one step closer to binding its top players to the SA Rugby Football Union (SARFU) after a meeting yesterday between the two parties to thrash out new contracts.

With the present contracts between SARFU and the World Cup Springbok squad expiring tomorrow, hanging onto the country's top players is a priority for SARFU.

Many South African players have opted to play for lucrative salaries at British clubs after uncertainty about their future, especially after the departure of World Cup heroes Francois Pienaar to Saraceans and Joel Stransky to Leicester. "The discussions went very well," said SARFU chief executive officer Rian Oberholzer.

The Cape Town meeting was attended by Oberholzer; Ronnie Masson, SARFU's finance committee chairman; general manager of finance Ivor Bloom, Springbok commercial manager Rob van der Valk and players' representatives in captain Gary Teichmann, vicecaptain Joost van der Westhuizen and Andrew Aitken.