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Hacjivah Dayimani exits SA on back of Springboks snub
By Neil Fissler
French giants Racing 92 are poised to make their fourth signing for next season, with Stormers back-row Hacjivah Dayimani on the verge of completing a move to the Top 14 title chasers.
Fissler Confidential recently broke the news that Dayimani, 26, wanted to quit South Africa after he was Springboks alignment camp in Cape Town despite being under contract to the Cape Town side until the end of next season.
He was snubbed in favour of Elrigh Louw and Mpilo Gumede because Springbok head coach Rassie Erasmus had concerns about him winning battles with other No.8's.
“When we looked at his roadmap, and I am not talking specifically about him, I am talking about other loose forwards competing with other loose forwards and how many battles you get into and how many battles you win,” said Erasmus.
Dayimani, who plays No.8 or flanker, joined The Stormers from the Lions three years ago and has been in outstanding form in both the United Rugby Championship and the Champions Cup this season.
He really caught the eye against Sale Sharks, beating 10 defenders and scoring his only try in 215 appearances this season in the Stormer’s 31-24 win, landing himself the man of the match award for his most outstanding performance of the season.
Racing have held off strong offers from Japan to sign the destructive ball carrier on a two-year contract with the option for a third year after he is released from the final year of his contract.
Stuart Lancaster has been busy in recent months improving his squad after watching them slip to fourth place in the Top 14 table, a point behind Bordeaux and nine off Toulouse, with arch-rivals Stade Francais 10 ahead.
Former England captain Owen Farrell has been lured away from Premiership Champions Saracens, while Lyon pair Romain Taofifenua and Bemba Bamba have also been signed up.
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Latest Comments
Yeah me too. I think the Welsh have it in them to make it a contest in the first half. Give the boks' second stringers a headache. Disrupting lineouts is one area the welsh could cause problems. Bok lineouts have been subpar.
And then fronting up in the collisions and at the rucks. If the boks get the ascendancy there too early, it could be a hiding. Jaden hendrikse had a tough game against the Scots - who were very good at disrupting the boks flow. The welsh would have taken note of this i'm sure.
But the bok bench will finish the welsh off i'm afraid.
Go to commentsYes, certainly. As an AB fan happy to be included in that top 3 of "matches that are routinely decided by one score" now, we were well outside that for a few years.
They have not had enough games yet. You can't undo so many poor years just like that. Asking for miracles like SA losing is not the way to get back to number 1.
They might get there as those bad years filter out of the rankings but it's guarenteed to be great fun going back and forth with SA once that happens.
Admittedly Foster only really had one bad year (21/22 season), but that's more likely because COVID stopped a lot of tough games from being played, and effected the other countries they did play far more than themselves.
A real shame we both don't get to see it unfold first with our regions teams in SR!
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