Western Province has turned its full attention to attempting to recruit World Cup-winning Springbok hooker Malcolm Marx, having toyed with the idea of luring former Cheetahs hooker Joseph Dweba from France.
News out of France is that Dweba, who only joined French club side Bordeaux Begles last year, is keen to stay on in the Top 14 to make amends for a less-than-stellar debut season in the competition.
With Marx’s fellow World Cup-winning Bok hooker Bongi Mbonambi still not having renewed his contract with Western Province, and the general feeling being that he’s moving to join his former skipper Siya Kolisi at the Sharks in Durban, the provincial union has turned its full attention to the former Lions man.
The 26-year-old Marx, who has been something of a gun for hire since the World Cup – especially with the Japanese sides, where he has played for NTT Shining Arcs and the Kubota Spears over the past two seasons – is a man in demand at the moment.
The Lions would be more than happy to have him back, and club sides in both the UK and France are monitoring him too. The Sharks are also understood to have been keen on adding him to their squad before his salary proved prohibitive.
Marx is rumoured to be earning between an eye-watering R14 million and R16 million in Japan, which means signing him – even though it would, in all likelihood, mean a pay cut for him – would still require something approaching breaking the bank.
Fortunately, Western Province can cushion that blow with a contribution from SA Rugby on account of Marx, whose contract in Japan runs out in June, being a player of national interest.
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