News

Watson packing his bags?

October 15 2008

Luke Watson's agent Jason Smith, and father Cheeky Watson, have confirmed that the flanker has received offers from overseas, should he opt to leave South Africa.

Watson is less than flavour of the month in the rainbow nation at the moment, after a long speech delivered at a rugby festival in which he said that wearing the Springbok logo 'made him want to vomit', criticizing the SARU administration for being 'run by Dutchmen', and accusing his former Bok team-mates of not including him in team-bonding.

A full transcript of Watson's speech was also released on Tuesday, in which there was no appearance of the 'Dutchmen' comment which has had many people up in arms. The source of the transcript said that Watson had made that comment during a Q&A session after the speech.

South African Rugby Union appointed a designated official - Durban attorney Dekker Govender - to investigate statements alleged to have been made by Watson and to determine if they merit a breach of the South African Rugby Union code of conduct.

Given the inflammatory nature of the comments, it is unlikely Watson will be back in a Springbok jersey any time soon, and he may have created an unhealable rift with many of the current SA provincial squads with his ill-chosen words. Thus he may opt to continue playing overseas.

"We have (had) some interest from overseas clubs for Luke for the last 12 months," said Smith.

"If Luke decides that he wants to play in Europe, these opportunities will definitely be available."

Watson's father, Cheeky Watson, confirmed the offer, but was more of the opinion that Watson would stay.

"There is already a big offer on the table. But Luke is born in South Africa. Why must he pack his bags?" he said.