Former rugby sevens player, South African Werner Kok, who passed through Stade Toulousain, will return to his former team with the Durban Sharks in the quarter-finals of the Champions Cup this Saturday.
At the Stadium, connoisseurs of the reds and blacks will recognize the rather familiar figure topped with long blonde hair.
That of a toned winger, a real electric battery of one meter eighty and 96 kilos.
A rather strong physique for a winger, but offering him an interesting versatility for rugby sevens. His speed and his franchising qualities make him a complete winger when he plays fifteen.
Werner Kok began rugby fifteens, as a center for the Pumas of Nelspruit, his hometown, alongside Kwagga Smith and Jacques du Plessis (past by Montpellier) in particular.
He then joined the Cape Town team, the Western Province, which took him from junior to professional.
The problem is that he does not play a professional match there before making a surprising choice, that of turning to the South African rugby sevens team.
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In 2015, even if he was voted best player in the world at seven by Word Rugby, he left the national team to return to his province and finally started the following year as a pro during the Currie Cup (main rugby competition). fifteen South African).
The yoyo game between fifteen and seven continues for Kok, who after a Currie Cup title in 2017 against the Sharks - ironically - returns to seven with a goal.
It is with this in mind that he joined Stade Toulousain two years later.
The Toulouse joker
The South African winger arrives in Haute-Garonne in 2019 as a World Cup joker.
His goal: to continue rugby union in the south of France to give himself a chance to compete in the 2020 Rugby Sevens Olympic Games. Werner Kok never loses sight of the two disciplines and wants to keep the double hat.
His time in Toulouse is far from remarkable since he only played five games, including two as a starter, for a single scored try.
Difficult at that time to forget the performance of the future world champion with the Springboks, Cheslin Kolbe (who had just slipped his name to the Toulouse leaders).
It must be said that as a World Cup joker, time was running out for him.
Especially since the 2019-2020 season in question has not come to an end due to the global Covid-19 pandemic.
Barely arrived in Toulouse, Werner Kok joins his current team, the Durban Sharks, which he must join after the 2020 Olympic Games, before the Olympics are postponed for a year.
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Back to earth
On his land, Werner Kok rediscovers himself and quickly turns the page on Toulouse which has not been a great success, like certain South African players who leave their continent to play in Europe, where adaptation is not always easy.
Since his arrival in Durban, at the Sharks, he is a full-fledged holder and finally devotes himself completely to the fifteen.
And he evolves alongside great South African internationals like Siya Kolisi, Eben Etzebeth or Bongi Mbonambi.
This season, Werner Kok has played fourteen games in the jersey of the province of Durban for six tries, including one in the round of 16 last week against Munster in the victory of the Sharks, 50-35.
A remarkable ratio, making him a threat that Ugo Mola's players will have to watch.
In particular Matthis Lebel who will be lined up opposite and who will have a hard time dealing with the power and attacking qualities of the former "
septist
".
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