Record try-scorer Bryan Habana was one of six senior internationals not awarded a Springboks contract yesterday as coach Heyneke Meyer said the trend of players moving to overseas clubs was “not ideal” for his plans.
Habana, who has 47 tries in 83 Tests, and the other five players would have been awarded a national contract for this year if not for their decisions to move to Europe or Japan, the South African Rugby Union (SARU) said.
Flyhalf Morne Steyn, fullback Zane Kirchner, wing J.P. Pietersen and locks Andries Bekker and Juandre Kruger were also left off the 15-player list as they are set to leave South Africa toward the end of the season. The SARU said a further five national contracts were still available and would be awarded later.
SARU chief executive Jurie Roux recognized a trend which has been exacerbated by the weakening of the South African currency and has seen top Springboks take up big-money contracts overseas.
“We’ve kept as many of our top players in South Africa as we could by awarding them national contracts, despite the powerful lure of the pound, euro and yen,” Roux said.
Habana has signed for Toulon of France and will move at the end of the Super Rugby season, although the prolific wing has said he will continue to be available for the Springboks. However, there are obvious logistical difficulties in having senior national team members playing in the European or Japanese seasons.
“Losing experienced players to overseas teams is not ideal, but it’s their right to further their careers abroad,” Meyer said.
In response, the SARU named a reasonably young 15-man group of centrally contracted players.
Captain Jean de Villiers, flyhalf Pat Lambie, 21-year-old lock Eben Etzebeth and front-row regulars Tendai Mtawarira, Bismarck du Plessis and Jannie du Plessis were all given contracts, as were loose forwards Willem Alberts, Marcell Coetzee, Pierre Spies and Duane Vermeulen.
Habana ended last year in top form, while fellow Pietersen and Kirchner were first choices in their positions. Bekker and Kruger were South Africa’s top two No. 5 locks last season. Although Steyn lost his starting place, he is expected to remain important for the Springboks this year.
Pietersen is set to play in Japan and may not be available for the Springboks’ Rugby Championship campaign against New Zealand, Australia and Argentina over the next two seasons. Kirchner and Kruger will also likely miss time in the national jersey, while Bekker was left out of Meyer’s first ’Boks squad of the season, suggesting he will not be considered while he plays in Japan.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier