The Sharks have received a boost with the news that bruising flanker Jean Deysel has returned from Japan and he's already been fast-tracked into the Sharks S15 squad.
The Sharks have also signed scrumhalf Michael Claasen who is currently playing for Toulon but he will only be available once he has fulfilled his commitments in France.
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Nope Reinach is one of the best 9's in the game and will walk the Sharks starting 15 week after week with ease.
The current Bok incumbent has nothing to worry about in has been Claasens
Well one has to take that with a grain of salt because you are the guy who wanted Hougaard to be the Bok 9 for the last 4 years.
Sure Dave....and Quinn Roux is a great lock.
Yeah Quinn is a great lock, a guy you are not in a position to pass judgement on as you have NEVER seen him play.
Has he ever been close to my Bok side.....no, I just rate him as a lock as do all that have seen him play before he left for Ireland
Wow so you are passing judgement on a player you have never seen......special talent that.
Actually if good old Coetzee had, had any ability as a coach, he would not have selected the ridiculously average de Kock Steenkamp ahead of Roux a year or two ago and we would then not be having this debate.
Do yourself a favour and watch the Youtube clip of this lad and come tell me how average he is.
Ignorant to not care that we have lost this guy. The same guy who was regarded as being better than Etzebeth early on in their careers.
Not only is Quinn a mountain of a man, he is very aggressive. Check his Youtube footage out.......hits rucks with plenty of aggression and like Etzebeth, PSDT and co......likes to go on the charge.
This kid is a loss to SA of that there is no doubt. He and CJ Stander (staring for Munster at the moment) were our biggest losses.
Willemse, du Plessis and Kitshoff are even bigger losses. v/d Walt is another.
If Meyer had any brains he would award caps to Willemse, du Plessis, Kitshoff, v/d Walt and CJ this year in our minor fixtures. All 5 are test material players. If useless Meyer can call up Ross Cronje to a squad then these 4 should be a breeze.
I am not advocating that every young player that leaves be awarded a Bok cap, but I would certainly select merit players like these 5 in order to secure their services moving forward. The same rule would not apply to players like Jono Ross, Herbst, Rossouw de Klerk etc that have left.
Yeah, someone that knows him well has said he wants to stay in London and qualify for England
Sad news really
I have a feeling the same applies to Pat Howard who is with Munster......he wants to stay there as well and I don't see him in the Stormers squad.
These losses are really getting out of hand now.
Actually over the last year the Euro has fallen far more than the Rand.....vs the Mighty Dollar I mean. So currency cant be the issue. Just to put this issue to bed.... at the start of the financial crisis you could get $ 1.59 for a Euro....now you can get $ 1.13. A Euro decline of 29%. The Rand has actually improved from R14.97 per dollar a few months later to R11.6 per dollar today. An improvement of 29% versus the dollar. Admittedly the Rand tanked at the start of the crisis, but it's trading in mid range today.
Currency is not the issue. It's a better salary, a more exciting life for a young man, a life line out of the country, a leve l playing field, a more glamorous tournament (the S15 has become a drag), less travel away from home and better wine.
While European clubs poaching local players is nothing new, there is a lot of talk in local rugby circles about White and his “shopping list” – which includes a number of top Springbok and local players to move to Montpellier.
White has apparently been given the go-ahead – and loads of cash to back it – to lure some of the top South African talent to Europe, and right now he is targeting specific top South African talent.
This latest threat, coupled with the natural exodus after the Rugby World Cup later this year, may well see a massive group of players leave these shores again.
Already White has signed Western Province flyhalf Dimitri Catrakilis and the Bulls SA under-20 giant Jacques du Plessis to join the French club at the end of the season and it is clear he is intent on building a Super team for the French club.
There are rumours that both the Du Plessis brothers – Bismarck and Jannie – have already signed despite clauses in their SA Rugby contracts that only allow them to start negotiating in June.
White apparently has a “hit list” of South African players – many of them who are not Springboks already – that he is targeting to sign for the French club.
The former Bok coach’s knowledge of local players is to his advantage, although his chequered history with clubs – White hardly stays at a club for more than a year – and his acrimonious fallout with the Sharks and ACT Brumbies in recent years doesn’t seem to count against him.
At the moment it is the cash talking, so much so that the Bulls knew straight away they weren’t able to even come close to matching the massive offer that White made to the 120kg utility forward.
In Du Plessis’ case there is more to the story. There were whispers at Loftus Versfeld that he wasn’t happy with the arrival of Cheetahs flank Lappies Labuschagne – on a contract said to be more than 2x Du Plessis’ current salary, and was furthermore nonplussed by the prospect of moving to lock.
Given this background, the massive offer – said to be in the region of R5-million a season – was almost impossible to refuse, especially as it is around six times the youngster’s current salary.
The weak rand played its part, but not even an earnest plea from Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer – who phoned Du Plessis and tried to convince him to stay, could stop the player from following the money.
White has also lured his namesake – Brumbies scrumhalf Nick White to join Montpellier – who already have South Africans Wynand Olivier and Robert Ebersohn, and New Zealander Rene Ranger on their books.
The irony of White doing exactly what he always complained about regarding overseas clubs is not lost on the SA Rugby hierarchy either, but in a professional game where money rules, it is unlikely that they can do much to stop him.
Still, the rugby public shouldn’t be surprised if they hear a number of big names heading to Montpellier on big money contracts in the next few months.
Du Plessis and Catrakilis are said to be the first of many on the hit list, and with a shift in momentum after the World Cup, the hit list could simply quicken an already precarious exodus of talent from these shores."
