Springboks star Cheslin Kolbe has announced his departure from French side Toulon and will now play for Japanese outfit Suntory Sungoliath.
The club, Sungoliath headed to Twitter to confirm the news, as the Springbok international will turn out for the club from the 2023/24 season.
Rugby media outlets suggest that the confirmation ends much furore and speculation regarding Kolbe’s future as reports of a ‘mega-deal’ for Kolbe to rejoin the DHL Stormers surfaced in the past few weeks.
This all came after an announcement of his Toulon exit, thus forcing Western Province Rugby to set the record straight.
The franchise said there was no formal offer made for the 29-year-old or to his representatives to join the inaugural Vodacom URC champions.
SA Rugby Mag posted that recent articles suggested that the World Cup winner was made an offer to return to Cape Town, but a WP Rugby spokesperson explained that these engagements did not progress beyond initial exploratory conversations.
Kolbe said he is excited to announce and confirm he will be joining Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath in the Japan Rugby League One competition after this year’s highly anticipated World Cup.
He said this was going to be a new chapter and challenge for his career and thanked everyone who made the move possible.
“Suntory is a team with an impressive history, and I am looking forward to making new memories with the team over the seasons ahead. To the fans, I hope to put in some performance that you can all enjoy. See you soon!” he added.
Meanwhile, Kolbe’s wife Layla didn’t waste time to come out and denied claims that her hubby turned down a bid of R15 million to play for the Stormers.
The infuriated wife explained that she was not happy to see their name get tarnished.
“He would’ve loved to go back to the Stormers! Secondly: he did not turn down a R15m offer!!!! That was not put on the table. Yes, the wife spoke out,” she said.
Main Image: Cheslin Kolbe/TheTelegraph
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