Trevor Nyakane. Photo: SA Rugby website
Bulls coach: Boks must end selection of overseas-based players!
Bulls coach Jake White has reiterated his belief that the Boks should no longer continue selecting overseas-based players.
Trevor Nyakane. Photo: SA Rugby website
Towards the end of last year, the Bulls confirmed that they had agreed to an early release for prop Trevor Nyakane, who will be joining French club Racing 92.
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It adds to a local landscape where numerous current Springboks play their rugby overseas, with SA Rugby having adopted an ‘open policy’ to picking players based abroad.
South Africa’s director of rugby Rassie Erasmus has widely acknowledged that SA Rugby simply can’t afford to keep many of the leading players in the country due to the current exchange rate and nature of the lucrative offers that come in from cash-flush overseas clubs.
From a Springbok perspective at least, the approach is to allow for overseas teams to effectively have South Africa’s leading players on their payroll, while the Boks can still benefit from selecting them.
Former Boks coach calls for discussion on the subject
However, with Nyakane – who has been at the Bulls since 2015 – set to join a legion of South Africans playing overseas, former Bok coach White believes a conversation needs to begin around this subject.
“Now is a good time, before the next contracting cycle, for SA Rugby to draw a line on picking players who are contracted to overseas clubs,” the Bulls director of rugby told SARugbymag.co.za.
“South Africa are world champions and SA Rugby did something that has worked because, in 2018 when Rassie Erasmus was appointed, the current cycle of Springbok players were all overseas. But we can’t allow that with the next cycle of players.
“South African franchises have basically become academies for overseas clubs,” said White. “Because the top senior talent is overseas, we play juniors from school who wouldn’t otherwise have been involved in senior rugby, and then when those youngsters are 21 or 22, they’ve got experience under the belt and the overseas clubs sign them and have them for the peak of their careers.”
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