Tim Swiel
Former Stormers and Sharks flyhalf, Tim Swiel has signed a full-time contract with Premiership club Harlequins after a highly successful 4 month loan deal in October 2014.
The 21-year-old English-qualified pivot returned to the Sharks academy in February 2015 but will rejoin the English club for the 2015 / 2016 season.
During his short, but memorable time at The Stoop, Somerset-born Swiel made 10 senior appearances across the Cup, Premiership and European Rugby Champions Cup – which included impressive performances in the back-to-back fixtures against Leinster and Big Game 7 at Twickenham Stadium in December.
“It is with great excitement that I am committing to Harlequins full time. The decision wasn’t a tricky one due to the fact I had such a great time on my loan spell. The Harlequins set up and supporter base is amazing and I can’t wait to wear the quarters again.
“Quins have very good young players coming through which bodes well for the future and I’m grateful to hopefully be part of that legacy,” Swiel said.
Harlequins Director of Rugby, Connor O’Shea stated that he is looking forward to having Swiel back at The Stoop.
“Tim made a real impact in incredibly trying circumstances whilst with us on loan earlier in the season and we are delighted that the Sharks have granted him his release to come back to us on a full time basis. He is a young player with a huge amount of potential and also someone who showed mentally that he is able to cope with anything thrown at him.
“We are all looking forward to getting him back here and working with him from next season,” O’Connor stated.
rugby365
Well, with Tim Swiel clearly superfluous to requirements at the Cell C Sharks and for that matter in South Africa, he has made an intelligent choice.
He had massive potential as a junior, was rated higher than Pollard at one stage. He hasn’t developed as expected (yet) so good luck to him.
Not everyone who is great at junior level will make it at the top, way will only know in a couple of years if we have missed an opportunity with him.
We think Pollard and Lambie but the one player that was touted as being a cut above both of them, Johan Goosen seems to be ignored lately.
You just never know…
2 @ Stormersboy:
The Goose is too brittle to play international rugby on the long term, simple as that!
Another Schoolboy flyhalf I expected to make a phenominal meteoric rise, bought here from Affies in Pretoria by the WP, was Ryno Eksteen… but he’s had injuries and just never rose as quickly as I thought he would. He was superb as a schoolboy… unmatched anywhere… dead-eye dick, good tactically, strong runner who took the line on, excellent defender, excellent hands, great distributor… looked an ideal buy!
Dare I say if he was in New Zealand he would have been an established Super Rugby player by now!
grootblousmile wrote:
Actually the guy who runs the stats website for Affies who is a neighbour of mine mentioned that Ryno’s kicking was a problem. I know he broke a record during Craven Week, but they may have been easier kicks, not sure. I know that he is struggling to establish himself at U21 level, often playing fullback. May be another case of not yet ready for the big leagues.
I had high hopes for him too.
I wonder if Gold will slot him right back into Full Back?
4 @ Stormersboy:
Interesting… the few games I saw him play (and that included some Affies games too, not only Blue Bulls schoolboy games), he was mezmirizingly dynamic and slotted kicks from anywhere and everywhere.
He almost had Sonny-Bill Williams like qualities in attack as well, breaching line after line and then offloading well.
Maybe it’s “Muisneste”… you know, chasing too much punanie now that he has more freedom, as a result of which his game has suffered.
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