Two Springboks leave Paris

French rugby club from Paris Stade Français will have to do without two Springboks next year. As the last games from Top 14, the French rugby league, are being played this Saturday (before the beginning of the final phases), Stade Français will be challenging Pau without any stake since the Parisians, ranking eighth, have no more chances to fight for the title. It will be the occasion to bid farewell to Morné Steyn and Piet Van Zyl.

Both are leaving, but not for the same reasons. Fly-half Morné Steyn, 66 appearances with the Boks between 2009 and 2016, will go back to South Africa and his former club Blue Bulls, a team he had left in 2013 for Paris. The game against Pau today will certainly be his last one in France for the one who had taken the Brennus Shield in 2015 with Stade Français. Winner of the Tri-Nations in 2009 under the national jersey, Steyn, 34, will bring his experience to the Bulls who see fly-half Handré Pollard go to Montpellier.

For Piet Van Zyl, the story is less mainstream. The scrum-half made up his mind and decided to leave rugby, not only Stade Français, to put an end to his career (at only 29) and start working at his father’s farm in South Africa. Arrived in Paris last year thanks to Heyneke Meyer, who used to train the Boks a few years ago and now manages Stade Français, Van Zyl could have extended his bail with his club since his work was appreciated in France’s capital city, but his choice was different. For him and his family. 

By Guillaume Mahot

Sources: www.rugbyrama.fr / www.sport24.lefigaro.fr

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