Saffa ‘Pom’ sent packing
7 Jan 2013
Former England flank Hendre Fourie is set to be deported following his premature retirement due to injury.
The South African left the Cheetahs in 2005 to play for Rotherham, before signing for Leeds and qualifying to play Test rugby for England. He made his debut as a replacement against the All Blacks in November 2010 and played the last of his eight Tests against Ireland at the 2011 World Cup.
Last week, a debilitating shoulder injury forced Fourie to retire at the age of 33 (since joining Sale 18 months ago, he had managed to play only 124 minutes for the club).
However, once Fourie’s contract was cancelled by Sale, his sports people visa expired and he was notified that he had to leave the country by the end of the month.
‘I can play for England but I can’t get a passport to stay in the country,’ Fourie told The Times of London. ‘If I had remained on a sports people visa for another two years, I would have got permanent residency, but unless someone is willing to give me another contract, that is not going to happen.
‘My wife [Corlia] is South African, but my boy [Hendro] was born here and I would have like to have stayed and tried to get a teaching job. There were options to appeal but I would have had to wait another few years before I could get my permanent residency.
‘It has been a red-tape nightmare and we just decided it was not worth all the hassle.
‘That’s the amazing thing, I am not able to claim any benefits in this country. I have always paid my taxes, have represented England, but I have to leave while you hear how they protect the rights of terrorists.
‘I am not angry, we have a lot of family in South Africa, which will be good for Hendro, but it is just frustrating the way things have worked out.’
89 Comments
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7 Jan 2013, 09:58 am
anyone know if there is a Keo pool setup on superbru yet Dragons
7 Jan 2013, 10:16 am
Very frustrating for the man,a servant to their country, when millions of other more unworthy cases are entering the country illegally and then leeching off benefits at the taxpayers’ expense.
But the rules are the rules, Britain is trying to clamp down on immigration, and the South African tap was turned off about 2 years ago.
7 Jan 2013, 10:31 am
Indeed when you think of people like Capo.
Mind you the Irish are less fussy when it comes to what they let in.
7 Jan 2013, 10:50 am
I am in the camp that says you need to be a citizen before you are eligible to play at international or test level for a country and that attitude applies to all sport.
For some reason Rugby permits these pseudo citizens to represent a country the player has only a token commitment to, which is just wrong.
Hendre Fourie has run foul of a perfectly logical rule that requires a foreign professional sportsman to quit the country when he no longer has a job.
The self same rule would apply to any tradesman.
7 Jan 2013, 10:55 am
‘My wife [Corlia] is South African, but my boy [Hendro] was born here and I would have like to have stayed and tried to get a teaching job. There were options to appeal but I would have had to wait another few years before I could get my permanent residency.”
I suspect he made bugger all effort to gaining permanent residency before he was injured. His heart was never in it to start with.
At least he is not bitter, which is a positive for the man.
7 Jan 2013, 11:02 am
@Brads-4: I agree with your 1st post entirely.
An IRB endorsed 3 year period of residency is FAR too short for someone to play for another country.
In my view any player who arrives in a country after the age of 18 should have to reside in that country for at least 8 years on a continuous basis in order to qualify. In most countries this would enable one to apply for citizenship too.
How can anyone who has resided in a foreign country for 3 years feel any real sense of loyalty to it? This isn’t even long enough to apply for citizenship in Britain.
But in Hendre’s case, it seems strange he is allowed to play for the country as an “Englishman” yet he isn’t allowed to stay when he is surplus to requirements… He has done more to serve England than millions of others who are allowed to stay and abuse the system.
7 Jan 2013, 11:06 am
this also happened to HG very embraboer…
7 Jan 2013, 11:10 am
Simple to appeal, almost identical rights whilst waiting for PR, besides he’s a teaching job and his son holds a British Passport… he will not be deported… news must be slow!
That aside no non-citizen should be allowed to represent a country in any sport… seems it’s the one thing SARU have got correct…
7 Jan 2013, 11:14 am
@Transformation-7:
Unfortunately HG started with the words When we on his residency application.
Big mistake, they’ve heard all that before.
7 Jan 2013, 11:16 am
poor disgruntled boertjie gotta get back to his boertjie roots now he thinking twice about being south african… suck off the pompom pound parole and then you wanna cry when it all comes to a dried up dead end doorstop
decide who you wanna be and be that.. as if rugby is a full time profession.. its just a nice excuse to have a cushy job earning pounds instead of rands .. its a part time professional pastime.. not a proper job by any level of imagination
7 Jan 2013, 11:19 am
Pretty disgraceful story really.
If you represent a country’s national sports team, it’s a given you should be allowed to stay in the country, you’ve literally put your body on the line for the nation – in Hendre’s case it’s cost him his health and career.
Beggars belief that they would seek to deport him.
7 Jan 2013, 11:20 am
Indeed.
Speaking of proper jobs how is my favourite economic refugee?
Did you find any work over the festive season?
7 Jan 2013, 11:32 am
@gunther-12:
Did the DA deport him?
7 Jan 2013, 11:34 am
@gunther-3:
7 Jan 2013, 11:38 am
@Brads-4: It’s the equivalent of NZ deporting Sitveni Sivivatu. He has left anyway for France, but still he has represented NZ and I’m sure they would never deport an All Black.
7 Jan 2013, 11:40 am
@WP-Forever-13:
Yes.
In an effort to make the Cape more economically productive he’s been repatriated.
Hopefully the thin air up there will calm him down a bit.
His engine has been running a bit rich lately.
7 Jan 2013, 11:44 am
@gunther-9:
7 Jan 2013, 11:45 am
I’m having a nice restful cushy working holiday outside of dead end obliteration of ‘holiday frenzy’ in sleepy hollow Fish Hoek
wtf you fat unadulterated sloppy slob doing sucking off who’s payroll as you suck off the corporate system while you yank your pompous plank and talk googly golly gobbledygook cods-wallop skittle sticks for hours on end on a poor excuse for a rugby site?
7 Jan 2013, 11:47 am
you still in Jozies transformation or you back in the baai
7 Jan 2013, 11:50 am
@skopdiekan-18:
A working holiday you say Cunteye?
Seems you’ve spent most of your “working holiday” on Keo holding court with your baby talk about religion and dietary habits.
You don’t seem relaxed at all.
You are angrier than a shaving rash on a bikini line.
7 Jan 2013, 11:52 am
@gunther-20:
I believe he is working on an exposé of the New World Order.
7 Jan 2013, 11:54 am
@WP-Forever-21:
Either that or a Joe Cocker biography.
7 Jan 2013, 11:58 am
not most, just a couple heart warming hours here and there of tear-jerking taunting to set all the bullshit about fake religious holidays and their false worth straight among some you half baked higgledy piggledy hore raving hogwash heathen
7 Jan 2013, 12:01 pm
@skopdiekan-18:
Nothing relaxing in your life clearly Ubu…
7 Jan 2013, 12:02 pm
In other news I see some Democrats are now seriously considering the option of the Treasury minting a $1 trillion platinum coin – which would not require Congressional approval – to maneuvre around its debt ceiling issues.
7 Jan 2013, 12:04 pm
@skopdiekan-23:
Well if you’d spent more time devoting yourself to outhouse fabrication you could have bought those new MocCrocs you’ve had your eye on.
Keep living the dream Fuckadilly.
7 Jan 2013, 12:11 pm
left jozi on saturday evening…
7 Jan 2013, 12:14 pm
what these poor unadulterated fuckwits know about relaxation.. I’m sitting here in quiet peaceful West end of Joey’s.. not a care in the world.. totally kaalgat.. talking sh’t on a craptalk medium where bullshitters reign supreme.. and these gobbledygook morons reckon they got the patent out on relaxation and rejuvenation…
tell you what the climate in Jo’burg beats Cape Towns harsh conditions hands down.. so does the level of oppression.. Cape Town far more oppressive than Jo’burg in every aspect… Jo’burg easier on the mind easier on the brain and easier on the body .. in short unless other factors come into play, for now Jo’burg a far nicer place to hang out and relax .. or be.
7 Jan 2013, 12:15 pm
@skopdiekan-28:
You’re welcome to Johannesburg, skop.
Where on the West Rand are you at the moment? I cut my teeth in the Krugersdorp/Roodepoort area.
7 Jan 2013, 12:18 pm
@skopdiekan-28: Make sure you draw the curtains please.
The good folk of Westdene don’t deserve this,
7 Jan 2013, 12:18 pm
well if you’d have made contact I’d have introduced you to some pumping Mellville dives where they rock on with their house music and reggae beat through the night on the weekend
7 Jan 2013, 12:26 pm
@WP-Forever-29: near there just down the drag from Roodepoort…. Westdene to be precise
yeah the congenial weather and climatic conditions plus the lack of anxiety and oppression in general is a welcome respite to the harsh conditions and lack of friendliness of Cape Town. Cape town is a harsh environment in more ways than just a few. In spite of what Capetonians tend to think Cape Town is a harsh social and climatic environment.
7 Jan 2013, 12:28 pm
@skopdiekan-28:
Thats the way, hang Cape Town out to dry and dont look back.
Lovem and leavem. Good motto.
7 Jan 2013, 12:28 pm
@WP-Forever-29:
I went to Krugersdorp High School, you must know it?
7 Jan 2013, 12:31 pm
@skop: thanks, will consider it next time but you know i booze & smoke mos? o
plus i’m not much of a house music & reggae fan…hip hop is my staple – the jazzy, mature kind.
7 Jan 2013, 12:32 pm
@Stawm-34:
Not that well.
I went to Hoërskool Florida.
7 Jan 2013, 12:33 pm
@WP-Forever-36:
Well in that case you MUST remember the Florida Lake Hotel?
7 Jan 2013, 12:35 pm
plenty hip hop and jazzy schmazzy stuff going down there about 5 or 6 clubs / bars in the main street within one block of each other and each with a different feel and music genre pumping through the sound system.. nice people generally.. plenty smoke and booze around also.. so though I stick out like a square peg in a round hole with my teetotal habits you would have fitted in just fine.
7 Jan 2013, 12:37 pm
@Stawm-37:
Yes, we used to go canoeing on Florida Lake.
It sure looked a lot different 15-20 years ago.
7 Jan 2013, 12:39 pm
@WP-Forever-39:
I havent been back there in 20 years or so. Must be very different.
7 Jan 2013, 12:41 pm
@Stawm-40:
We did a lot of naughty things on some smallholdings in Krugersdorp back then that today would probably see you being locked up for terrorism today.
It’s a miracle my friends and I have all our fingers left.
7 Jan 2013, 12:42 pm
The one thing I do miss from Joburg are the trees.
Cape Town is almost devoid of trees in comparison to Joburg.
Oh, and of course I miss the summer thunderstorms as well.
7 Jan 2013, 12:43 pm
I been in Cape Town 36 years and I can honestly say I’m still not a Capetonian.. small closed conservative environment with lack of empathy and congeniality in a social context .. Cape Town may think its the oldest established city in SA but it sure has some growing to do to become truly cosmopolitan..
Capetonians need to get over themselves and fast… and become absorbed in the greater cosmopolitan culture of the rest of the country else they going to be left behind in their assumed isolated elitism.
7 Jan 2013, 12:45 pm
@skopdiekan-38: i’ve done melville – cool runnings, ko’spotong & other joints – so i’m no newbie…some of my mates dabble in beat making (production) so places like bassline in newtown i’ve been to…
7 Jan 2013, 12:47 pm
agreed jozi is a bloody forest.
7 Jan 2013, 12:51 pm
there’s a small garden here with fruit trees and birds of many different variety enjoying the mild conditions.. rain in summer instead of the dry harsh barren conditions of the Cape climate, plenty greenery and trees everywhere and rocky koppies in a landscape that has its own sense of tranquil beauty, not as magnificent and striking as the Cape but easy on the senses is the way the highveld conditions in this part of the world appease the strenuous conditions of life in general.
I spent 2 or 3 years in Muldersdrift as a youth straight after school.. now they say Muldersdrift is racked with crime… I guess depends where you are at in time as to what the circumstances denote or dictate to anyone’s survival in this vale of tears and trepidation.
7 Jan 2013, 12:53 pm
@Transformation-44: well next time then though I doubt I be here next time you are. Perhaps.
7 Jan 2013, 12:55 pm
@WP-Forever-36: I’m also a Florida old boy. What year did you matriculate?
@Stawm-37: I remember it very well – my gran lived a couple of blocks from there. The hotel has since been knocked down… some flats were built there…
7 Jan 2013, 12:56 pm
@skopdiekan-47: you can show me where Galaxy is in Cape Town
7 Jan 2013, 13:00 pm
Fck Galaxy.. that ain’t in my orbit of designated experience.. ask Dawn or Katman to take you .. or go to Long street, also long past any desire to frequent any such down beat establishments
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