{"id":356614,"date":"2026-01-07T07:33:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T07:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/356614\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T07:33:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T07:33:13","slug":"struggling-harlequins-braced-for-another-seismic-player-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/356614\/","title":{"rendered":"Struggling Harlequins braced for another seismic player exit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Harlequins<\/a> are bracing themselves for another big-name departure, with skipper Stephan Lewies<\/a> set to return to South Africa<\/a> when his contract runs out at the end of the season.<\/p>\n

He is set to become the latest experienced player to leave the Gallagher PREM strugglers over the past few seasons, following in the footsteps of Andre Esterhuizen<\/a>, Will Collier<\/a>, Irn\u00e9 Herbst and Wilco Louw<\/a> through the exit door.<\/p>\n

Pretoria-born Lewies, who is 34, made his debut for the Sharks<\/a> in the Vodacom Cup in 2012 and played 63 times before joining the Lions.<\/p>\n

The lock, who was educated at the Afrikaans school Ho\u00ebrskool Eldoraigne and stands at 6 ft 6 in, weighs in at 113 kg and has made 88 appearances for Quins since joining them seven years ago.<\/p>\n

Lewies, who made a nine-minute cameo for South Africa in a 55-6 win over Scotland<\/a> in Gqeberha, Eastern Cape, in June 2014, has been struck down by several injuries in recent years.<\/p>\n

Before signing his last contract in December 2024, he openly admitted that he had considered retiring from rugby because of the injuries he was continuing to suffer.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast season, it came to a stage where I was close to hanging up my boots after dealing with multiple injuries, and I didn\u2019t feel like I played to the standards I hold myself to.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019ve worked hard, had a good pre-season, and I\u2019m enjoying my rugby this year. I\u2019m grateful to Quins for the opportunity to continue contributing to the club both on and off the field,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It appears that his stay in south-west London will end this summer, and he has been discussing a three-year deal with the Sharks for a return to Durban.<\/p>\n

He would be a welcome addition to the Sharks squad, not only as cover for Eben Etzebeth<\/a> but as a possible replacement for Marvin Orie<\/a>, who is only signed up until June after a short spell at the Bulls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harlequins are bracing themselves for another big-name departure, with skipper Stephan Lewies set to return to South Africa…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-356614","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}