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Siya Kolisi to sign for Sharks after shock Racing 92 exit
By Neil Fissler
Siya Kolisi is this week set to seal a return to his former club, the Sharks, after holding more talks with French giants Racing 92 about securing an early release from the final two years of his lucrative €1m a year contract.
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RugbyPass exclusively broke the biggest rugby transfer story of the summer on Friday that Kolisi had opened talks about a shock return to the Sharks and it is now within touching distance.
Kolisi, 33, only joined Racing after captaining the Springboks to a second successive World Cup title last October but the move has turned out to be less than successful however.
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He made 18 appearances for the La Defense Arena outfit but was the subject of an extraordinary attack by Racing owner Jacky Lorenzetti, who accused him of being “transparent” in their crunch Top 14 defeat to Bordeaux-Begles in June.
The superstar flanker has failed to settle in Paris. His family has already returned to South Africa, and he is now in the final stages of finalising his release to join them after the completion of the Rugby Championship.
Kolisi, who started his career with Western Province and the Stormers, moved to Durban in 2021 and was only three years into a five-year deal when Racing paid around R17m or around €850,000 to secure his release.
He started 28 of 31 appearances for the Sharks, who have spent heavily to avoid a repeat of the disaster of last season, which saw them finish third bottom of the URC table after losing 14 of 18 games.
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Sharks owner and New York lawyer Marco Masott has authorised the big-money signings of Springboks Jordan Hendrikse, Andre Esterhuizen, Jason Jenkins and Trevor Nyakane to bolster their ranks.
Emmanuel Tshituka, who can play anywhere across the back row, has also been added to the squad from the Lions, and the signing of Kolisi will increase the pressure on the Sharks to climb the URC table to a more respectable position.
The grass is seldom greener. Telling that he and his family would rather deal with the potholes, loadshedding and crime than stay in France…
Meanwhile SA Rugby (SARU) denies Kolisi Racing 92 contract buy-out so guess - if its happening - Sharks are coughing up the $
The link to SARU was a non-story from the outset. Obviously if the Sharks received a buyout for Kolisi for him to go to Racing the reciprocal would apply. And that it was R17mil (the exact same fee) makes it pretty self-evident. the sharks have enough financial backing. The only tab SARU might pick up is topping up his salary at the sharks as a player of national interest. Also, common knowledge and practice across contracted springboks playing in SA.
Just a good example of bad, lazy ass journalism.