Report: Sale Sharks to lose Faf and Lood

NEWS: Sale Sharks face the prospect of losing Springboks duo Francois de Klerk and Lodewyk de Jager revealed Director of Rugby Alex Sanderson.

According to reports Springbok lock De Jager is likely to return to South Africa for family reasons.

The 29-year-old has been linked with a move to Stormers in the wake of Eben Etzebeth's high-profile signing with the Sharks.

While De Jager's news does not come as surprise, Sale fans will be shocked by the departure of scrumhalf De Klerk.

The 30-year-old will have a ray of lucrative options with Japanese clubs already circling the Manchester side.

Speaking to a United Kingdom news outlet,  the Times, Sale Sharks' boss painted a bleak picture.

Andeson admitted combating the big-money offers would be difficult given the Premiership clubs have to deal with a reduced £5-million salary cap.

“[De Klerk] isn’t contracted to us next season and that is an ongoing discussion,” Sanderson told the Times. 

“The most difficult thing [about the reduced salary cap] is that you want to keep them all, but you can’t.

"Even if you do want to keep them, you are not going to be offering them as much as a French club or a Japanese club. It has been pretty brutal and it is part of the job.

“[De Klerk] hasn’t left yet but the reality is that he could get offered £1m from Japan and that is the nature of the game.

"That challenge of fitting into the salary cap is quite exciting, but it is not numbers on a page — it is someone’s life and aspirations. Players have a finite time in their career and need to get paid market value, or somewhere near, and if we can’t deliver that then I cannot control it.”

Source: UK Times