{"id":428830,"date":"2026-02-16T15:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T15:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/428830\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T15:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T15:17:08","slug":"another-club-sets-crosshairs-on-bok-veteran-faf-de-klerk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/428830\/","title":{"rendered":"Another club sets crosshairs on Bok veteran Faf de Klerk"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/pau\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pau<\/a> are the latest club to enquire about veteran Springbok <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/francois-de-klerk\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Faf de Klerk<\/a> as his contract with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/japan\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Japan<\/a> Rugby League One side <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/yokohama-canon-eagles\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Yokohama Canon Eagles<\/a> expires later this year.<\/p>\n<p>Pau, who are the Top 14\u2019s surprise package this season and are nine points behind leaders <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/toulouse\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Toulouse<\/a> and a point in front of third-placed Bordeaux, have been negotiating with former All Black scrum-half Aaron Smith.<\/p>\n<p>Smith, who celebrated his 37th birthday in November, was a member of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/new-zealand\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">All Blacks<\/a> squad that won the 2015 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/rugby-world-cup\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rugby World Cup<\/a> and is currently playing in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/japan-rugby-league-one\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Japan Rugby League One<\/a> for Toyota Verblitz, but no deal has been finalised.<\/p>\n<p>Pau need to replace Gloucester-bound <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/dan-robson\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dan Robson<\/a> and are exploring alternatives, and are now prepared to compete with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/perpignan\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Perpignan<\/a> for De Klerk.<\/p>\n<p>De Klerk, 35, is out of contract with Yokohama Canon Eagles at the end of the season but has been deregistered after suffering an ankle injury while tackling Shizuoka Blue Revs wing Valynce Te Whare in December.<\/p>\n<p>A member of the Springboks\u2019 two victorious World Cup squads in 2019 and 2023, he hopes to return to action before the end of the Japanese season and the recent injury isn\u2019t deterring French clubs from trying to sign him.<\/p>\n<p>Perpignan president Fran\u00e7ois Rivi\u00e8re mentioned two weeks ago that he believed his club, which has three scrum-halves out of contract this summer, was the favourite to sign the former Sale <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/sharks\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sharks<\/a> star.<\/p>\n<p>That was despite having a healthy budget to attract a big-name player, though they were concerned that De Klerk\u2019s wage demands might prevent the deal going ahead.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s in Japan, he\u2019s nearing the end of his career, and he\u2019s 35. He\u2019s not cheap. I think he\u2019s the frontrunner,\u201d Rivi\u00e8re said, though his worst fears could now be realised if Pau manage to secure him ahead of them.<\/p>\n<p>Perpignan have been exploring a couple of alternatives, including Zebre\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/gonzalo-garcia\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gonzalo Garcia<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/leinster\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Leinster<\/a> star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/luke-mcgrath\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Luke McGrath<\/a>, two of the names they have discussed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pau are the latest club to enquire about veteran Springbok Faf de Klerk as his contract with Japan&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-428830","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\/428830","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=428830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}