{"id":408239,"date":"2026-02-04T23:15:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T23:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/408239\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T23:15:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T23:15:13","slug":"bok-double-world-cup-winner-faf-de-klerk-tipped-for-french-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/408239\/","title":{"rendered":"Bok double World Cup winner Faf de Klerk tipped for French move"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Perpignan<\/a> Pr\u00e9sident Fran\u00e7ois Rivi\u00e8re believes his club are the favourites to sign veteran Springbok Faf De Klerk when his contract with Japan<\/a> Rugby League One side Yokohama Canon Eagles<\/a> runs out later this year.<\/p>\n

De Klerk, 34, has spent the last four years playing in Japan and has been attracting interest from Pau, as well as Perpignan, who are 18 points away from safety at the foot of the Top 14<\/a> table.<\/p>\n

Perpignan are willing to splash out on a big name because they have got three scrum-halves, Tom Ecochard<\/a>, James Hall<\/a> and Gela Aprasidze<\/a>, all in the final six months of their current deals.<\/p>\n

But Rivi\u00e8re believes that they might be outpriced in the race to sign De Klerk, who was part of the Springboks\u2019 World Cup-winning squads in 2019 and 2023, so they are looking into other options.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the \u2018100% USAP\u2019 show on France<\/a> Bleu, he said, \u201cWe don\u2019t know. He\u2019s in Japan, he\u2019s nearing the end of his career, he\u2019s 35. He\u2019s not cheap. I think he\u2019s the frontrunner.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I believe that between now and tomorrow, Laurent Labit will meet with other players for that position. Personally, I\u2019m pleased to see that USAP has once again become a team that attracts players, and I like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw proof of that with Sevu Reece. Who would have imagined him at USAP a year ago? Nobody would have believed it. So, USAP has once again become a club that attracts players on the sporting front.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe region has always been attractive. It\u2019s a great place to live. But what\u2019s new is that the club has once again become very appealing on the sporting front. Furthermore, the players are reassured by the USAP\u2019s management.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no constant turnover of directors. The launch of the new training centre is reassuring. The players are well-informed, and they feel reassured. The financial situation is very well managed at USAP,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Perpignan Pr\u00e9sident Fran\u00e7ois Rivi\u00e8re believes his club are the favourites to sign veteran Springbok Faf De Klerk when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-408239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408239","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=408239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}