Hacjivah Dayimani has become too important a cog in the DHL Stormers machine for him to be released ahead of when his current contract with the Cape franchise expires in June next year.
That was the gist of Stormers coach John Dobson’s reaction when told during a press conference that Dayimani intends taking up one of the lucrative offers he has received from France and Japan after he feels he was snubbed by the Springbok management in not being invited to the recent national alignment camp.
“I don’t know where that comes from,” said Dobson in reaction to the rumour that has been reported in the media.
“He is under contract here until the end of June 2025. So he has the rest of this season and the whole of next season under contract to us. So I can’t see us letting him go. The way he has played for us this season it would require a really compelling argument for us to let him go.”
Dobson added that the experimental move against Northampton Saints in a friendly match last week, where Dayimani was tried as a wing in the second half, was not an indication that the 26-year-old’s position as a first choice loose-forward was under threat.
“We virtually always go six-two (between forwards and backs) on the bench, but the thing with that is that we have to use one of our scrumhalves, Paul de Wet or Godlen Masimla, as a wing cover,” said the Stormers coach.
“So we just thought it would be better to train up a person more. We sometimes do run with Paul on the wing in training. We just thought that if Hacjivah got more experience there, it would be less of a patch job. At the moment we just put the poor guys on the wing and expect them to catch contestable kicks, without them training it.
“It was really just to build our capacity around that position. It’s useful,” he added.