62 Friday April 8 2022 | the timesSportRugby union
He will not hold back in Japan but
he will not take the battering that
could come his way on Saturday or in
the second leg next weekend. This
sojourn will freshen him up before
France 2023. The 30-year-old doesn’t
need to be tested week in, week out.
Rather he can tick over, ensuring the
kick, pass and break remain honed.
The move works in every way for a
veteran who has seen, suffered and
done it all.
It works perfectly for Sale’s
promising England international Raffi
Quirke as well. His requirements are
diametrically opposed to those of De
Klerk. The 21-year-old wants as much
game time as possible. De Klerk’s
injury helped in the first part of the
season but with the World Cup
winner fit and raring, he has to play
second string in big games, such as
against Bristol. Alex Sanderson has a
primary duty to Sale. If that means
the Springbok scrum half plays
75 minutes on Saturday, so be it.
Never mind that Quirke is missing
invaluable game time.Serena eyes
Wimbledon
Tennis
Serena Williams has hinted that she
could make her long-awaited return at
Wimbledon in June. The seven-times
singles champion and former world
No 1 limped out of last year’s first-round
match in tears with a leg injury and has
not played on tour since.
The news came on the day that her
coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, revealed
that he had agreed to work with another
former world No 1, Simona Halep.
Mouratoglou has coached Williams
for the past ten years but says that he
had missed doing his job while she had
been sidelined. “I had a conversation
with Serena and the door opened for
me, at least short term, to work with
someone else,” he said.
Williams missed last year’s Olympics
in Tokyo as well as the US Open and
this year’s Australian Open because of
the same hamstring injury.
On an Instagram story with the NFL
quarterback Aaron Rodgers, Williams
said: “We’ve been talking about my
comeback and he’s been hyping me up
and getting me ready for Wimbledon.
Can’t wait.”
Williams, 40, last won the Wimble-
don singles in 2016 and has 23 grand-
slam titles to her name.The youngsters have their rough
edges. Protecting them from the
opponents lying in wait to ambush
them and wreak havoc on their
emerging game is counterproductive.
Rough edges are smoothed from
bitter experiences. The opportunity
for Quirke to step up from understudy
to centre stage is good news for both
the youngster and England.
George Ford will arrive to ensure
the scrum half’s education continues
and he will benefit from the
perspective of one of the smartest
fly halves in the game. Ford’s
understanding of how a pair of half
backs can run a game will help
Quirke. Who knows, if England were
to meet South Africa in a repeat of
the 2019 final it could be a case of De
Klerk against his northern protégé.
Let’s not commiserate over the loss
of a world star from the Premiership
scene. Instead let us celebrate a career
that merits more money than an
English club can afford. At the same
time we can welcome Quirke into
the spotlight.S
ale Sharks supporters will
afford their World Cup
winning scrum half Faf de
Klerk a special roar when he
runs on to the field in
tomorrow’s European Cup clash with
Bristol Bears at the AJ Bell Stadium.
His days as a particularly snappy
Shark are coming to end. This week
Sale announced that the scrum half is
leaving the North West of England
for the financial largesse of Japan
when the curtain comes down on the
2021-22 season.
Bar a surprising sequence of results,
Sale seem set to miss out on the top
four. It is boiling down to Europe or
nothing. The stocky De Klerk, who
has been at the club for five years, will
throw all his energy and expertise into
keeping their European hopes alive.
The box-kick will be as prevalent as
ever — I won’t miss Sale’s slight
overreliance on the Saracens/South
Africa strategy — while those blind-
side bursts will threaten as much as
usual. But it’s not the technical stuff,
the game management, his fans will
miss; it’s that energy. A bundle of
muscle, he doesn’t give up on lost
causes. The result has been a long
line of try-saving cover tackles. What
he lacks in inches he makes up for
with bristling competitiveness. Throw
in the long blonde locks and you have
one of the most compelling and
distinctive rugby players on the
planet.
“Major blow for Sale” and “Blow to
Premiership prestige” summed up the
initial internet response to the story
of his departure, released this week.
He is reputedly leaving England for
quite a large fortune — at least inDe Klerk’s exit
a boost for him
and for Quirke
rugby terms. Premiership players are
going to find it harder than ever to
strike the financial jackpot with the
salary cap being reduced to £5 million.
The country is going through grim
economic times, rugby union
included. The imbalanced importance
of broadcast money is a potential
short-term threat to the sport’s
stability, especially to clubs such as
Sale, who do not have sell-out crowds
to buoy the coffers all that often.
The recent culls witnessed at
several clubs are wholly
understandable. English club rugby is
cutting its cloth accordingly. Players
take up too much of a club’s budget.
They are overpaid in terms of what
the game can afford yet underpaid in
terms of the effort men such as De
Klerk put into their work.
Career-ending and potentially
serious injuries loom over the game. I
would love all professional rugby
players to earn enough for a
comfortable retirement. And that is
why the revelation that De Klerk is
joining some of the world’s better
players in Japan is great news. He has
earned every penny that neither Sale
nor South Africa could pay him.
A season in Japan is ideal for a man
like De Klerk. It is not a league short
on skill but it has none of the fire and
brimstone witnessed on a weekly
basis in either the English or French
leagues. The most recent start the
scrum half made at the AJ Bell
Stadium was against Saracens. It was
not pretty but it was not far short of
Test-match level in terms of intensity.
The change enables De Klerk to
enrich himself before he attempts to
play his part in South Africa’s defence
of the World Cup. From the cash-rich
Japanese position it is also a good
deal because here is a man who will
set a superb example every time he
laces his boots, either training or
playing. And the fans will love him.
They do all over the world. I think
even All Blacks’ fans have a soft spot
for the man.Stuart Barnes
DAVID ROGERS/GETTY IMAGESDe Klerk’s departure allows Quirke to step into the limelight, benefiting EnglandFarrell recovered in time
for European Brive clash
Rugby union Owen Farrell has
recovered from a head injury and will
play for Saracens in their European
Challenge Cup game away to Brive
this evening. Farrell, 30, who missed
the Six Nations with an ankle injury,
played in a league victory over Bristol
Bears a fortnight ago but was
replaced for a head injury assessment
and has not played since.Southern hemisphere trio
to play Wales in autumn
Rugby union Wales will play autumn
internationals against Argentina,
Australia and New Zealand.
The visit of New Zealand on
November 5 kicks off the run of
games, with Argentina the opponents
a week later. They host Georgia on
November 19 before concluding their
programme against Australia the
following Saturday.