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Wasps fuming over reports Sopoaga is leaving the club

Lima Sopoaga of Wasps signs autographs for young fans as he arrives for the Gallagher Premiership Rugby match between Sale Sharks and Wasps at AJ Bell Stadium on September 22, 2018 in Salford, United Kingdom. (Photo by Lynne Cameron/Getty Images)

Wasps are fuming at reports suggesting star flyhalf Lima Sopoaga is eyeing up an early exit from the club.

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The Times are reporting that the former All Black star has sensationally requested to leave the club, just one year into a lucrative contract.

RugbyPass understands however that Wasps are fuming over the report and that the highest authorities in the club have described it as nonsense.

The former Highlander has struggled adjusting to the rugby in the Northern Hemisphere since arriving at the Ricoh Arena last summer.

He’s currently out injured but is set to return this weekend. The ex-All Black has been open about his frustrations with his club form.

“I’d say after this year I will be evaluating the year that it has been. I’d say I will make a few adjustments heading into next season. It’s very physical over here. That is what I noticed straightaway, that guys are a lot bigger over here,” Sopoaga told RugbyPass last week.

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“It’s very dominated by physicality and that is a big difference. And you play so many games and have so many different competitions. Bouncing in and out of one or the other has been a challenge for me in learning how to deal with the rigours of rugby up here.”

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Sopoga claims that the club have lacked for confidence: “We have been on the wrong side of the ledger with the few games that we probably should have won. It just comes back to maybe a bit of confidence and sometimes that is a hard to thing to get.

“Unfortunately we have just missed the boat on a few of the games recently and we need to find that mojo quickly and get back to winning ways.

“When I first started rugby I was kind of like life or death and I used to get pretty dark (about losing), but having a family has definitely puts some perspective on winning and losing rugby games these days. It’s tough but at the end of the day when I go home and see my daughter, she is not worried about whether I have won or lost a football game. She just wants to see her dad. Sometimes things are really put into perspective.

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G
GrahamVF 1 hour ago
Does South Africa have a future in European competition?

"has SA actually EVER helped to develop another union to maturity like NZ has with Japan," yes - Argentina. You obviously don't know the history of Argentinian rugby. SA were touring there on long development tours in the 1950's

We continued the Junior Bok tours to the Argentine through to the early 70's

My coach at Grey High was Giepie Wentzel who toured Argentine as a fly half. He told me about how every Argentinian rugby club has pictures of Van Heerden and Danie Craven on prominent display. Yes we have developed a nation far more than NZ has done for Japan. And BTW Sa players were playing and coaching in Japan long before the Kiwis arrived. Fourie du Preez and many others were playing there 15 years ago.


"Isaac Van Heerden's reputation as an innovative coach had spread to Argentina, and he was invited to Buenos Aires to help the Pumas prepare for their first visit to South Africa in 1965.[1][2] Despite Argentina faring badly in this tour,[2] it was the start of a long and happy relationship between Van Heerden and the Pumas. Izak van Heerden took leave from his teaching post in Durban, relocated to Argentina, learnt fluent Spanish, and would revolutionise Argentine play in the late 1960s, laying the way open for great players such as Hugo Porta.[1][2] Van Heerden virtually invented the "tight loose" form of play, an area in which the Argentines would come to excel, and which would become a hallmark of their playing style. The Pumas repaid the initial debt, by beating the Junior Springboks at Ellis Park, and emerged as one of the better modern rugby nations, thanks largely to the talents of this Durban schoolmaster.[1]"


After the promise made by Junior Springbok manager JF Louw at the end of a 12-game tour to Argentina in 1959 – ‘I will do everything to ensure we invite you to tour our country’ – there were concerns about the strength of Argentinian rugby. South African Rugby Board president Danie Craven sent coach Izak van Heerden to help the Pumas prepare and they repaid the favour by beating the Junior Springboks at Ellis Park.

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