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Siya Kolisi to sign for Sharks after shock Racing 92 exit

Siya Kolisi of South Africa looks on during a South Africa Captain's Run at Twickenham Stadium on June 21, 2024 in London, England. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)

Siya Kolisi is this week set to seal a return to his former club, the Sharks, after holding more talks with French giants Racing 92 about securing an early release from the final two years of his lucrative €1m a year contract.

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RugbyPass exclusively broke the biggest rugby transfer story of the summer on Friday that Kolisi had opened talks about a shock return to the Sharks and it is now within touching distance.

Kolisi, 33, only joined Racing after captaining the Springboks to a second successive World Cup title last October but the move has turned out to be less than successful however.

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Wallaby coach Joe Schmidt analyses South Africa

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Wallaby coach Joe Schmidt analyses South Africa

He made 18 appearances for the La Defense Arena outfit but was the subject of an extraordinary attack by Racing owner Jacky Lorenzetti, who accused him of being “transparent” in their crunch Top 14 defeat to Bordeaux-Begles in June.

The superstar flanker has failed to settle in Paris. His family has already returned to South Africa, and he is now in the final stages of finalising his release to join them after the completion of the Rugby Championship.

Kolisi, who started his career with Western Province and the Stormers, moved to Durban in 2021 and was only three years into a five-year deal when Racing paid around R17m or around €850,000 to secure his release.

He started 28 of 31 appearances for the Sharks, who have spent heavily to avoid a repeat of the disaster of last season, which saw them finish third bottom of the URC table after losing 14 of 18 games.

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Sharks owner and New York lawyer Marco Masott has authorised the big-money signings of Springboks Jordan Hendrikse, Andre Esterhuizen, Jason Jenkins and Trevor Nyakane to bolster their ranks.

Emmanuel Tshituka, who can play anywhere across the back row, has also been added to the squad from the Lions, and the signing of Kolisi will increase the pressure on the Sharks to climb the URC table to a more respectable position.

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N
NB 45 minutes ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Nice bit if revisioniusm but that's all it is JW.


For your further education, I found the following breakdown of one prominent club's finances in the Top 14 [Clermont].


For Clermont (budget of €29.5 million for 2021-2022) :

- 20% from ticket sales

- 17% from the LNR (includes TV Rights, compensation from producing french internationals and other minor stuff)

- 5% from public collectivities (so you're looking at funds from the city of Clermont, the department of Puy-De-Dôme and the region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes)

- 4% from merchandising and events

- 3% from miscellaneous

- 51 % from sponsorships and partnerships. They've got 550 different partners. The main ones are CGI, Groupama, Limagrain/Jacquet, Omerin, Paprec, Renault and of course Michelin (not surprising since they're actually the founders of the club).


As you can see nothing comes from the FFR at all. The LNR is a separate entitiy to FFR and their aims frequently do not accord.


It is also why the European breakaway plotted by LNR and PR back in 2013 had nothing to do with the governing bodies of either England or France - and it most certainly did not have their blessing https://www.espn.co.uk/rugby/story/_/id/15331030/jean-pierre-lux-anglo-french-cup-detrimental-european-rugby


And from the horse's mouth [ex AB skipper Sean Fitapatrick] about the comp between Top 14 and Super Rugby:


"The Top 14 in France is probably the best rugby competition in the world at the moment, purely for the week-in, week-out.”


“I think the quality of players. They are bigger, they are faster, they are stronger. Which then carries on into the international game.”

Take it from someone who knows JW😅

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