According to rumors, Sbu Nkosi, the problem child of South African rugby, has been sent home early from the Bulls’ overseas tour for violating team standards.
It appears that moving from Durban to Pretoria has not helped the Springbok wing maintain its concentration on rugby.
Many felt that Jake White, Nkosi’s former schoolboy coach at Jeppe, might jumpstart a career that had stalled at the Sharks when the 26-year-old went walkabout for weeks.
White reportedly urged Nkosi to return home after he missed a squad meeting in Ireland during the week of the Munster match.
Nkosi had apparently been granted permission to visit a friend, but returned late to the team hotel.
Nkosi’s omission from the matchday squad for the Bulls’ Saturday victory against Benetton aroused eyebrows, but White has now provided an explanation.
According to reports, Nkosi apologized to the team, but White still issued him a red card.
Nkosi joined the Sharks in 2017 and participated in 64 games before being released to join Pretoria.
While he was variably ill (one of the longest-lasting instances of gastro known to man) and apparently injured at the beginning of the year, he wrote music, emerging from the wilderness in May to release the rap song Off the Clock under the moniker Lawd Odin.
As a Springbok, Nkosi has scored nine tries in 16 Tests for the Boks, demonstrating his familiarity with the try zone.
He has been on the winning side in eleven of those Tests, and he played on the right wing in the Boks’ shock victory against the All Blacks on the Gold Coast last year.
But can the Boks recall him when he appears to lose track of the ball?