Ek sal maar die berig copy paste soos Voldy se manne doen!
World Cup-winning Springbok wing Bryan Habana will continue to play his rugby in South Africa for the next two years, but it will be in the colours of Western Province and the Stormers.
rugby365.com can reveal that Habana has accepted an offer from WP to move from Pretoria to Cape Town for a contract that will run until 2011.
Bernie Habana, father of the Bok wing, confirmed on Sunday that Habana Jnr will be playing his domestic and Super Rugby in Cape Town for the next two years.
“Some details of the contract still has to be sorted out, but Bryan has decided that Cape Town is where it is at,” Habana Snr said, adding: “Those details will be sorted out in the next few days [before he departs with the Boks for Australasia on Tuesday].”
This follows less than a week after he arrived in Cape Town, last Monday, for ‘explorative talks’ with Stormers coach Rassie Erasmus.
Habana, winner of both the International Rugby Board and South African Rugby Union Player of the Year awards for 2007, also had an offer to stay with the Blue Bulls in Pretoria and had talks with the Bulls last Sunday.
And as rugby365.com revealed last week, apart from the offers from the Blue Bulls (Pty) Ltd and WP Rugby (Pty) Ltd, there were no other written offers on the table. This was despite recent reports that suggested French Top 14 outfit Bayonne was leading the chase for his signature.
The 26-year-old try machine, Habana – who was one of the key players in South Africa’s 2-1 victory in the series against the British and Irish Lions earlier this year as well as the 2-0 whitewash over the All Blacks this month – has been repeatedly linked with a switch to Europe.
But this has all proved to be unfounded media speculation.
The decision to move to Cape Town follows after the Stormers head coach, Erasmus, made contact with Habana.
Erasmus made the initial approach, to determine if there is any interest from the Bok flyer, and they then met last Monday.
The Bulls, who managed to retain the services of fellow World Cup winner Wynand Olivier, despite moves to also lure him to Cape Town, will now look towards 20-year-old flyer Gerhard van den Heever to fill the void left by Habana’s departure.
Van den Heever and Springbok Akona Ndungane, who fractured his leg at the weekend, are the top wings in Pretoria at present. Van den Heever, who has come through the Bulls ranks and played for all their age-group teams, played for South Africa in the International Rugby Board Junior World Championships earlier this year.
Despite making it a “top priority” for them to retain the services of Habana, the Bulls also made it clear they won’t be offering him “outrageous amounts” to stay in Pretoria.
WP, apart from losing out in the race to sign the Bulls midfielder, Olivier, have also recently lost the services of Springbok midfielder Jean de Villiers to Irish province Munster.
De Villiers was present at Munster’s pre-season match against Guinness Premiership club Sale Sharks at Musgrave Park last weekend.
The Springbok centre was on a two-day tour of the Munster set-up before returning to the South Africa Tri-Nations squad last week.
WP and the Golden Lions are currently also in a tug-of-war over the services of another World Cup-winning midfielder, Jaque Fourie, who has indicated that he is keen on joining his Bok teammate, Habana, in Cape Town.
By Jan de Koning
60 @K9-MonsterLeeu Jy daai stukkie gesien waar Ponting sy kop krap…lyk of die tor afgeval het!
@Koos – nee maar ek dink daai man stres. So te verloor teen ‘n gemiddelde klomp poms….
62 @K9-MonsterLeeu – Bwhahahaha hulle vertel jou gou die kant, top wicket takers, top run scorers, top flippen…alles maar hulle het steeds verloor!
@Koos – ja hulle is nou no4 in die wereld. Aus/Bangladesh behoort ‘n goeie toetsreeks te wees.
ICC Test Championship
Team Matches/Points/Rating
South Africa 30 3672 122
Sri Lanka 24 2852 119
India 28 3327 119
Australia 31 3600 116
England 39 4102 105
Pakistan 17 1424 84
New Zealand 22 1794 82
West Indies 25 1910 76
Bangladesh 19 255 13
ICC ODI Championship
18 Aug 2009
Team Matches Points Rating
South Africa 18 2280 127
India 26 3286 126
Australia 22 2626 119
England 18 1990 111
New Zealand 15 1651 110
Pakistan 21 2297 109
Sri Lanka 25 2600 104
West Indies 18 1397 78
Bangladesh 23 1257 55
Ireland 5 135 27
Zimbabwe 20 513 26
Kenya 9 0 0
@Koos – A voice of reason has spoken at last…….
All the emotion about a common fact of life in the professional era………
Hi guys – first post on the site. Reckon apart from the money the move will make sense if they promised Brian the centre position. He will start slowing down soon and then he has to make centre home (e.g. Umaga etc) otherwise his career is over in a year or two.
By the way great site – any chance of enticing the other good rugby bloggers like Pissant, Stodders, Cane etc to come over?
67@Pietste – Welcome… I’m sure when they get to know of the site they’ll come browse here.
Pissmier has his own blog, but he knows he’s welcome here, I’m sure
66@Pietste –
welcome piet pieter pietste
btw
under which name did you blog on keo?
cant remember any piet other than pietman!
69@ashley –
skuus was vir #67
Hi Ashley – Also blogged as Pietste on keo – but hardly ever commented, mostly just read – there was too much off the ball stuff to get involved. I probably only commented 20 times in all.
71@Pietste –
“off the ball stuff” jaaa boet, but its much nicer here, although i do like tackling a blue bull or 2 “off the ball” now and then!!
No Worries – Blue Bulls are used to the other teams playing like that. We are never dirty players- (with a couple of exceptions like Uli Schmidt, Adri Geldenhuys, Burger Geldenhuys and about 20 other names, but apart from them) we never played dirty.
Province need him. They might finally be a potent force in rugby again. The Sharks need some real challenge because thumping the Bulls at Fortress Loftus has lost its appeal now.
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