'It is has been quiet in terms of contact...Hopefully, I can rock up'
Scrumhalf Faf de Klerk flies home to South Africa tomorrow to start preparing for the Springboks assault on the World Cup in Japan not knowing if he has helped Sale Sharks qualify for next season’s Heineken Cup competition.
De Klerk’s brilliant attacking play conjured up two outstanding late tries to help Sale defeat Gloucester 46-41, however, Bath’s 32-31 win at Leicester consigned the Sharks to a seventh place finish and they now have to rely on La Rochelle beating Bordeaux in the Top14 to finish in the top six.
That would trigger an extra Cup qualifying position for the Gallagher Premiership thanks to Saracens’ Heineken Cup triumph and it would go to Sale.
The live wire No9 is on the six man short list to be named Gallagher Player of the Season in the Premiership which makes de Klerk’s assertion that he is not guaranteed a place in the Springbok World Cup squad difficult to comprehend. However, De Klerk takes nothing for granted and is prepared to put in the hard yards when invited to take part in the pre-Cup Springbok training camps because that is the way he attacks every rugby challenge.
It is why he refused to accept that Gloucester had established a winning 41-31 lead at the AJ Bell Stadium and highlights the massive impact achieved since joining Sale.
Last year de Klerk kick-started is stalled test career with such success he was vying for the World Player of Year and he is certain to be a key figure as the Springboks chase a third World Cup in Japan.
De Klerk , who will be joined by another six South African players at Sale next season including lock Lood de Jager, said: “I am flying back to South Africa on Monday and I will hopefully have a few weeks off.
"I am really excited but the Springbok World Cup squad has still to be announced. If I get the call up I will take it.
"It is has been a bit quiet in terms of contact because the Super Rugby season is taking place back home and they started some alignment camps a few weeks ago. Hopefully, I can rock up, get the call up and get the knowledge I will need to get.
“There have been some good wins in Super Rugby and it appears that things are slowly coming together and watching those game it is good that all the Springbok guys are performing. You want to see that and it is creating a real difference in the quality of performances. I think we are going to be in a good place going into the World Cup.
“A lot of my good mates are coming over from South Africa to strengthen the Sharks squad. It will give us some depth and while we have done well, when we have got down to the wire we have struggled at points and it is credit to our medical staff to get us through the season.
“For the first time our attack was really good against Gloucester and it was something we really focussed on going into the game. We have grown in that sense and what let us down was out defence which had been good this season, however, overall we played well. To get a win in the final game of the season against a quality side is always great but we have a lot of stuff to work on for next season.”
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I was at this match. Jordie Barrett earned his money with a massive hit to slow a connaught attack to win the math when Leinster had 14 in the last few mins. Mack Hansen had a real go at the refereeing after citing a serious head hits on Iaone and Aki.
connaught were up for this. Snyman tried a trademark dirty after, and the onnaught 4 and the onnaught pack absolutely laid into him.
Leinster hose to kick to the corner when only winning by 5 with 10 left and qith only 2 tries scored. onnaught should have punisihed them for that utter stupidity after they broke out and Leinster yellowed to stop the attack.
13 changes from last week. It seems teams are scoring about 10 points less against Leinster this year. With Neinaber in his second year, the new attack coah established, surely they will be a bigger threat in champions up? Or will the attack recgress further.
They must adopt the SA philosophy of take your 3 pointers and the bonus points will come.
connaught back line inluding Iaone, Murphy, Aki, Forde, cordero is the seond best in Ireland surely. Leinster were lucky here
Go to commentsShould have played more for England but he jumped ship just as he was breaking through.
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