World Cup-winning Springbok wing Bryan Habana will continue to play his rugby in South Africa for the next two years, but it will be in the colours of Western Province and the Stormers.

We can reveal that Habana has accepted an offer from WP to move from Pretoria to Cape Town for a contract that will run until 2011.

Bernie Habana, father of the Bok wing, told rugby365 on Sunday that Habana Jnr will be playing his domestic and Super Rugby in Cape Town for the next two years.

"Some details of the contract still have to be sorted out, but Bryan has decided that Cape Town is where it is at," Habana Snr said, adding: "Those details will be sorted out in the next few days [before he departs with the Boks for Australasia on Tuesday]."

This follows less than a week after he arrived in Cape Town, last Monday, for 'explorative talks' with Stormers coach Rassie Erasmus.

Habana, winner of both the International Rugby Board and South African Rugby Union Player of the Year awards for 2007, also had an offer to stay with the Blue Bulls in Pretoria and had talks with the Bulls last Sunday.

And as we revealed last week, apart from the offers from the Blue Bulls (Pty) Ltd and WP Rugby (Pty) Ltd, there were no other written offers on the table. This was despite recent reports that suggested French Top 14 outfit Bayonne was leading the chase for his signature.

The 26-year-old try machine, Habana - who was one of the key players in South Africa's 2-1 victory in the series against the British and Irish Lions earlier this year as well as the 2-0 whitewash over the All Blacks this month - has been repeatedly linked with a switch to Europe.

But this has all proved to be unfounded media speculation.

The decision to move to Cape Town follows after the Stormers head coach, Erasmus, made contact with Habana.

Erasmus made the initial approach, to determine if there is any interest from the Bok flyer, and they then met last Monday.

The Bulls, who managed to retain the services of fellow World Cup winner Wynand Olivier, despite moves to also lure him to Cape Town, will now look towards 20-year-old flyer Gerhard van den Heever to fill the void left by Habana's departure.

Van den Heever and Springbok Akona Ndungane, who fractured his leg at the weekend, are the top wings in Pretoria at present. Van den Heever, who has come through the Bulls ranks and played for all their age-group teams, played for South Africa in the International Rugby Board Junior World Championships earlier this year.

Despite making it a "top priority" for them to retain the services of Habana, the Bulls also made it clear they won't be offering him "outrageous amounts" to stay in Pretoria.

WP, apart from losing out in the race to sign the Bulls midfielder, Olivier, have also recently lost the services of Springbok midfielder Jean de Villiers to Irish province Munster.

De Villiers was present at Munster's pre-season match against Guinness Premiership club Sale Sharks at Musgrave Park last weekend.

The Springbok centre was on a two-day tour of the Munster set-up before returning to the South Africa Tri-Nations squad last week.

WP and the Golden Lions are currently also in a tug-of-war over the services of another World Cup-winning midfielder, Jaque Fourie, who has indicated that he is keen on joining his Bok teammate, Habana, in Cape Town.

365

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