John Dobson says it would take a “compelling argument” for the DHL Stormers to release Hacjivah Dayimani before the end of his contract next June.
Dayimani has received lucrative offers from Japan and France and, according to a report from Sport24, decided that he wants to leave after being snubbed from the recent Springbok alignment camp in Cape Town.
However, the 26-year-old’s contract with Western Province Rugby runs until the end of next season, so he would need to negotiate an early release to move overseas.
Addressing the rumours, Dobson said that it’s highly unlikely the Stormers will allow their star loose forward to leave before the end of his contract.
“He is under contract here until the end of June 2025,” Dobson said.
“So he has the rest of this season and next season under contract here. So I can’t see us…it would have to be a really compelling argument to release Hacjivah, the way he has played this season.
“I am not sure where that comes from.”
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The Stormers experimented with Dayimani on the wing, in the recent exhibition match against Northampton Saints in England.
Dobson explained that Dayimani is still very much seen as a first-choice loose forward and that the experiment was to give the Stormers another emergency option out wide should one or both starting wings get injured.
“We often go with a six-two split on the bench. We virtually always go six-two,” Dobson said. “The thing with that is a Paul de Wet or Godlen Masima has to go onto the wing.
“We just thought it would be better to train up a person more. We sometimes do run with Paul on the wing in training. We just thought that if Hacjivah got more experience there, it would be less of a patch job. At the moment, we just put the poor guys on the wing and expect them to catch contestables, without ever practicing.
“It was really just to build our capacity around that position. It’s useful.”
The post Dobson eases Dayimani exit fears appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Src: sarugbymag.co.za
