Tim Swiel
Cell C Sharks back, Tim Swiel will play for Harlequins Rugby Club in the UK on loan for four months. He joined the team on Saturday and will return to Durban at the end of February 2015.
“This is a fantastic opportunity for Tim and I am certain that this experience at a top club will provide him with great memories and will bode well for him in the future”, said The Sharks CEO, John Smit.
Tim Swiel added: “I am looking forward to playing for Harlequins Rugby Club for a few months during the Cell C Sharks off-season.
Cell C Sharks Media Release
“Due to injury, I did not get a lot of game-time during this year’s Absa Currie Cup and both my coaches at The Sharks and I agree that regular game-time during this off season will enhance my preparation and will provide the necessary momentum needed for Super Rugby 2015.”
Swiel concluded by saying, “I believe that it can only be beneficial for other young players to get similar opportunities to experience another rugby culture during their off season, which will contribute positively to their growth and experience in the game. I thank The Sharks and Harlequins for granting me this exciting opportunity.”
The Sharks send Tim our best wishes for his short stay in the UK.
The english dream in full flurry with that one… unlikely to see him coming back at all.
if they even want to keep him.
Good experience for him….and he has his English passport tucked away in the old sock drawer.
Macro, you might be spot on here, he will certainly make it known that he is available for England.
He will just first have to produce quite a lot in a very limited time to persuade them that he has what it takes
1 @ MacroBok:
3 @ nortie:
yip… he won’t be coming back any time soon…
and when he does… it will be with an english 10 on his back… tormenting us…!
such a pity that wp and saarks could not harness and guide this kid’s incredible talent…
good luck to him though… go to where they will not only recognise his talent but utilise and improve it even further…
c’est la vie…
@ ufo:
will be a miracle if swiel makes it in sa or england.
he is a non physical flyhalf that tends to attack the advantage line AND attempt to create space.
Problem is that we dont have players that looks for that space off the flyhalf. and it rarely happens, it will get better the more sevens players we push in the 15 man code but our play is dominated by one off runners off ten and nine that try to smash opponents, it is not isolated to one or two teams, everyone does it.
So Swiel tends to force passes or to get isolated. jaco van der westhyuzen who had a brilliant 2004 with the springboks at flyhalf went down the same route after that and it was a disaster especially after he went to japan where the guys off his shoulder try to run into space.
All the best to him and I hope he makes it, but first he has to harden the #### up before he wants to get that golden opportunity.
oh and his kicking game is pretty much on par with tony jantjies and jurgen visser
5&6 @ MacroBok:
will have to disagree with you bud… respectfully… of course…
i don’t believe you watched swiel play too often… except for the odd games that were televised this year…
in the u21s… while his kicking may have been wayward at times… he displayed excellent vision, nous and execution with his kicking… and with his game reading and creativity…
yes, he did get isolated sometimes early in the season… but as the players around him got used to his eye for a gap and the pace with which he took them… wp u21 just went from strength to strength and won the title last year… with devon williams being the top try scorer… thanks in no small part to swiel’s influence and distribution… and as well as kicking balls onto which williams could run…
his defence is no worse than most flyhales in the country… with the exceptions of patrick (who is the best defensive 10 imo) and hendre… so nothing untoward with his physicality either… imo…
but that’s just the thing… at the sharks swiel got one game… then dropped from the squad… later another game… dropped from the squad… while others got endless opportunities despite their shakey starts…
not only would that mess with the minds and confidence of most young players… but it made it impossible for swiel to build an effective understanding and partnership with his teammates… or for them to get used to him…
even hendre pollard experienced a major slump when messed around by frans ludeke… an people wondered why he could;t replicate his age-group form in the big league…
so it’s not just swiel…
while i don’t expect any player to be pandered too… good man-management would not unnecessarily mess with the minds & confidence of young players…
swiel was simply not given the chance to settle or establish himself… and that is the shark’s (and wp’s and south africa’s) loss… wait for it… swiel will play for england in the future…
he is way better than zeilinger and cronje… and would have made an excellent junior partner/mentee to patrick… again… imo… of course… 😉
@ ufo:
Look I think swiel is a great talent, but his kicking game was terrible this year. He is very tentative in all forms of contact and age group Rugby is difficult to compare because the talent PW and the blue bulls have at their disposal from u19 to u21 will pretty much make any gameplan work against the other teams.
What we have at this stage is also a sense of entitlement thats seems to be showings its ugly side in south africa. The hype following swiel is incredible and it is mostly due to YouTube and a whole lot of edited clips.
I never went to Newlands to watch him play and its not that i dont apprecuate his talents but you have to bare in mind the people playing around him. He shouldnt even make the PW team with demitri there. also england need a 90% goal kicker. Is he that good?
on a side note. I really respect john smit for allowing swiel to do this… he is turning out to be a rugby administrator th looks after the individual players interests… how long that will last however is yet to be seen.
Tim Swiel was never “designed” to play Jakeball.
Perhaps he’ll fit in better with G Gold, dunno?
@ Angostura:
I dunno.
Sounds like a case of swiels and roundabouts to me.
@ gunther:
Nah, you just envious coz the bools don’t have a stomach for jellied (sw)iels …
@ Angostura:
Au contraire they taste just Swiel.
😆
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