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South African franchise willing to drop 20 players to capture All Blacks legend

By Online Editors
Julian Savea. (Photo by Henry Browne/Getty Images for Barbarians RFC)

Battling South African side the Southern Kings are reportedly in the hunt for the signature of Toulon wing and ex-All Blacks star Julian Savea as they look to improve their results in the European Pro14.

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The unexpected transfer proposal, which was reported by Afrikaans outlet Rapport, comes in the wake of a poor run of form from Savea for the French club, which has led to intense public criticism from club owner Mourad Boudjellal and Toulon fans.

Savea has endured a tumultuous stay in the south of France since joining Toulon last year, with Boudjellal telling RMC in February that he would “ask for a DNA test” after a string of underwhelming performances from the 28-year-old, who scored 46 tries in 54 tests for the All Blacks.

“They must have swapped him on the plane [when he joined from the Hurricanes last year]. If I were him I would apologise and go back to my home country,” Boudjellal said.

“I’ve told him that he was free to go and wasn’t welcome at Toulon any more.”

While Savea took the criticism in his stride, both he, his wife, Fatima, and daughter Jude have since been the target of online abuse from Toulon fans, with Fatima publicly fearing for the wellbeing of her family.

“Who would have thought that I’d feel like my life and my daughter’s life might be at risk going back to Toulon with the amount of threats and hateful messages I have received from angry fans,” she wrote on Twitter.

After a five-week spell on the sideline following an axing from the side after a 19-10 loss to Agen on February 17, Savea returned to the team as a second-five in Toulon’s 42-33 loss to Lyon last month.

Joining Savea on the Kings’ wish list is former Springboks forward Jacques Potgieter, who played for the Eastern Province side in the Currie Cup between 2009 and 2011.

Potgieter, who also plays for Toulon, has been struggling for game time since his arrival from the Munakata Sanix Blues in the Japanese Top League during the off-season.

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It is understood negotiations between the Kings and Toulon for the duo have been underway since the start of the weekend, around the same time of the announcement of an historic partnership between the two clubs, with a massive turnover of players expected to ensue should the transfers ensue.

According to Rapport, the Kings would have to release at least 20 contracted players to make room for both Savea and Potgieter financially, with Savea alone earning around NZ$1.65 million per season on a two-year deal in France.

Securing the services of either player would be a significant statement of intent from the Kings under new high-performance director Robbie Kempson, as the club have won just three matches from 40 outings since joining the Pro14 from Super Rugby after getting booted from the southern hemisphere competition at the end of the 2017 season.

Under the newly-formed partnership, the Kings and Toulon will be allowed to share resources, youth academy facilities, an exchange programme for coaches and players, venture into joint commercial opportunities, and play fixtures between each other.

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The partnership comes just after a month after a group called The Greatest Rugby Company in the Whole Wide World (Pty) Ltd (GRC) purchased a 74 percent shareholding from South African Rugby to take majority ownership of the Kings, making the Port Elizabeth-based franchise South Africa’s first privately-owned professional side.

The Eastern Province Rugby Union acquired the remaining 26 percent of shares.

In other news:

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Jon 5 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 8 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

32 Go to comments
A
Adrian 10 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

32 Go to comments
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