{"id":449603,"date":"2026-02-28T03:35:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T03:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/449603\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T03:35:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T03:35:08","slug":"controversial-ex-bok-winger-aphiwe-dyantyi-signs-for-european-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/449603\/","title":{"rendered":"Controversial ex-Bok winger Aphiwe Dyantyi signs for European club"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Controversial ex-Springbok winger <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/aphiwe-dyantyi\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Aphiwe Dyantyi<\/a> has a new club to call home, after it was confirmed that he has been signed by RC Narbonne with immediate effect.<\/p>\n<p>Dyantyi had most recently been attached to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/bulls\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bulls<\/a> in the URC, where he played six games last season, having enjoyed a season with the Sharks, where he made nine appearances the season before that.<\/p>\n<p>RC Narbonne are currently third in the Nationale, France\u2019s third-tier competition.<\/p>\n<p>The club said in a statement: \u201cA powerful and impactful centre or winger, Aphiwe Dyantyi is known for his speed, his ability to break through the defence and his game sense. He comes to strengthen the Narbonne back lines at a key moment in the season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter returning to the pitch and playing regularly in recent seasons, the player is now part of a solid sporting trajectory. This signing reflects the club\u2019s desire to equip itself to approach the end of the season with ambition, high standards, and determination.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRacing welcomes Aphiwe Dyantyi and looks forward to seeing him play soon in the orange and black colours.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now 31, Dyantyi enjoyed a meteoric rise through the ranks of professional rugby in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/south-africa\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">South Africa<\/a> in the late 2010s at the age of 23. He went from a Varsity Cup standout to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/super-rugby\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Super Rugby Pacific<\/a> to international rugby for South Africa in rapid succession. It was all derailed, however, when he was handed a four-year ban in 2019 after testing positive for multiple banned substances in an out-of-competition sample.<\/p>\n<p>The 6 foot, 90kg wing, who had been named World Rugby Breakthrough Player of the Year in 2018, denied knowingly taking performance-enhancing drugs but accepted the sanction.<\/p>\n<p>His suspension ruled him out of the 2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/rugby-world-cup\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rugby World Cup<\/a> and halted a rapidly rising international career.<\/p>\n<p>After serving the full term, Dyantyi returned to professional rugby in 2023, but has yet to recapture the form that brought him to the world stage.<\/p>\n<p>He scored six tries for the Springboks in 13 appearances.<\/p>\n<p>The Eastern Cape-born flyer also featured for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/barbarians\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Barbarians<\/a> against Argentina.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Controversial ex-Springbok winger Aphiwe Dyantyi has a new club to call home, after it was confirmed that he&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-449603","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\/449603","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=449603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}