South African rugby players, previously
seduced by playing overseas, are wanting back to South Africa for the BKT United Rugby Championship – and among the latest to return to the Republic is
fullback Andries Coetzee.
A relative veteran at 32, Coetzee played
149 matches for the Emirates Lions between 2011 and 2018, but in 2019 sought a
new challenge at the Kinetsuy Liners.
Covid struck and Coetzee’s contribution to
the Liners was two matches before he linked up with Italy’s glamour club
Benetton in the inaugural BKT United Rugby Championship.
He played nine matches in the back end of
the 2021/22 league season, including a visit against the Emirates Lions in
Johannesburg.
Coetzee earlier in the year was a player
in transit and the lure of being able to play for a South African team in what
is South African rugby’s premier regional international competition proved
irresistible for Coetzee, who in 2017 started at fullback for the Springboks in
13 successive Tests.
It is no surprise he settled immediately
for the only team he has known in South Africa, and the Emirates Lions will be
the stronger for his presence.
Coetzee’s return aligns with several
prominent South African players wanting to be back in South Africa to play in
the BKT United Rugby Championship.
The DHL Stormers utility forward Deon
Fourie’s return to Cape Town after a decade in France proved sensational and
Fourie, at 35 years-old, became the oldest player in history to debut for the
Springboks.
Fourie’s national ascent screamed about
the opportunities and possibilities in the BKT United Rugby Championship.
The number of South African-based players in the league invited to the
Springboks squad training and subsequently picked for the Springboks ensured
players knew that the league, in addition to being one of the most competitive
in the sport, was also a steppingstone to national selection.
Players didn’t have to necessarily leave
South Africa to further their international careers. The BKT URC, in its inaugural season, was about quality and opportunity.
Experienced South African players abroad
wanted back and every one of South Africa’s four league teams have been
strengthened through the return of very experienced players from abroad.
South Africa’s powerful finish to the
league last season, with three of the four teams in the play-offs, and the DHL
Stormers monumental home play-offs winning streak, immediately confirmed South
Africa’s presence in the DNA of a league that is positioned to be among the
most sought after in the global game.
Coetzee, in the colours of Benetton, got
an appreciation of the value of the league to the growth of Italian rugby, and
he also got a taste of what it meant to be playing in South Africa again.
It didn’t take much convincing for the
Emirates Lions to agree terms with Coetzee, whose seniority will be pivotal to
the fortunes of a youthful and exciting Lions back division.
Lions flyhalf Jordan Hendrikse is on the
national radar, despite being 21 years-old. Hendrikse played for the Springboks
7s earlier in the year and was among the stand-out players for the Emirates
Lions in last season's BKT URC.
Coetzee’s strong kicking game will complement
Hendrikse and the duo, one left-footed and the other right-footed, one in the
twilight of his career and the other at the start, will combine to make the
Emirates Lions very difficult to beat, especially at altitude in Johannesburg.
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