STAR GOING NOWHERE
PLAYER’S PLAYER: DU TOIT WANTS STORMERS TO WIN SUPER RUGBY TITLE
Bok flank staying in the country for personal reasons.
The player drain which mars South African rugby’s chances of winning Super Rugby will no doubt continue next year but great news this week was the confirmation that World Rugby Player-of-the-Year Pieter-Steph du Toit will be staying put to play for the Stormers in 2020.
The top-class rugby Du Toit has produced on a consistent basis for the last two years has been richly rewarded on a personal level and the loose forward picked up more silverware on Tuesday night as he was named the Brightrock Players’ Player of the Year.
He said: “Well, not everyone can leave the country. Someone has to stay!
“And there wasn’t that much interest from overseas,” he chuckled, explaining the reasons for his decision.
“But for me it’s about being close to family. My wife and I are both from Cape Town and we’ve just had a child, so it was a personal decision to stay.
“I’d like to help the Stormers win Super Rugby next year and I’m really enjoying my rugby in the Cape.”
On winning the prestigious award, he commented: “I’ll not be able to explain how much this [means to] me, it’s a massive honour.
“But it’s not about me; it was a team effort. The players and management made it possible for me to win these awards.
“I’ve built up fabulous relationships with those people, I’ve trained hard and focused on what I can control.”
South Africa did not build particularly well on previous World Cup triumphs, in 1995 and 2007. Du Toit said ensuring continuity was vital and then the benefits of the Springboks’ victory in Japan would continue.
“We need to keep people in place because then players trust the system and the people running it.
“From 2016 to now, we’ve done everything the same, the players have accepted responsibility and tried to take our rugby forward, to make a difference.
“After the previous two World Cup wins, Springbok rugby took a dip, but we have to be mentally stronger and realise that we have to pitch up for every game.
“Two years ago we were a young squad.
“But we learnt from our mistakes.
“We became a team, we play for each other and we all bought into the coach’s philosophy.”