Back in 1999, Newport Rugby Club in South Wales welcomed a Zimbabwean-born Springbok into their ranks after he had fallen foul of selection inconsistency in South Africa and decided to seek pastures greener.
Gary Teichmann, of course, went on to become a great hit at Newport and was joined not long afterwards, for a spell, by another Zimbo-Bok, Adrian Garvey. Percy Montgomery, who was alas, not born in Zimbabwe (rather Walvis Bay, which was at that stage part of South Africa, despite actually being in Namibia) also spent a few seasons with the Newport-Gwent Dragons, as the side is now known.
The latest player to join this trend is also Zimbabwean by birth, but a Springbok all the same. Winger Tonderai Chavanaga, the 27-year-old former Western Province flyer, may only have played in 4 test matches for the Boks, but still holds the individual try-scoring record in a single test, for the 6 he scored against Uruguay on his test debut. Those happy days seem like nothing more than a happy memory know, though, with injury after injury having taken Chavanga completely out of the Bok picture since 2008, when he played the last of his four tests. Currently contracted to the Lions, he is well out of the selection picture and has decided to pursue his career in Wales.
We’d like to wish Tondie all the best. Have a look here for his interview with Ruggavibe all about the move.
Yes unfortunate . But also a good thing that our contracted players that are out of the picture are being let go .
I Wish him all the best in Wales !
Yes pity about Tondie, the gas man is arguably the fastest first-class rugby player (with his 100m time in school being of Olympic qualifying status). Even flyer Zee Nqwena of the USA Eagles admits that Tondie used to beat him at school. But so unfortunate that injuries always cut him down from showing his true potential…
@CapeShark (Comment 2) : who is zee nqwena?
Takudzwa Ngwenya – Biarritz and USA
@Megatron (Comment 3) : The guy that made Habana look slow at the last world cup.
@CapeShark (Comment 2) : That’s impressive. Where is Jongi Nokwe? Still injured or is he playing somewhere else?
@Ben (Comment 6) : Jongi just got kicked out for the Griffons side.