Rugby: Magpies export Brad Weber awaits Pink Army start

Brad Weber in the kit from his new side in France.

Hawke’s Bay rugby halfback Brad Weber has started training in France but is still awaiting a first appearance for new club Stade Francais Paris as it challenges for the lead in French premier competition the Top 14.

Dubbed the Pink Army, and also in the Investec Champions Cup start in early December, the club is one of three on 18 points at the top of the Top 14 table with four wins from five games, in a competition that started on the third weekend of August and hibernated during the Rugby World Cup tournament.

Having won all three matches before the break and losing an away match on the first weekend back, Stade Francais beat Castres Olympique 39-16 on Saturday at home-ground Stade Jean-Bouin.

Stade Francais has won the Top 14 six times since 1998, but has only once played in a final of the Champions Cup, formerly known as the Heineken Cup, being beaten 34-30 by Leicester Tigers in 2001.

The 32-year-old Weber’s last match for the Hawke’s Bay Magpies was the 19-22 Bunnings NPC final loss to Taranaki in New Plymouth on October 21, his 50th for Hawke’s Bay.

He was welcomed to the Stade Francais last week and is soon expected to wear the No 9 jersey which has been filled by South Africa-born former France international Rory Kockott, who, at the age of 37, was called in from recent retirement as injury cover pending Weber’s arrival.

They face Lyon next weekend, followed by successive matches against current co-leaders Racing 92 and Pau and then a match against Toulouse before opening the Champions Cup campaign with an away game against English side Sale Sharks on December 10.

Weber has played in more than 240 first-class matches since 2012, including 9 for Otago, 26 for Waikato and 50 for Hawke’s Bay, mainly in the NPC, 123 for Super Rugby franchise the Chiefs, 1 for the South Island, 9 for the Maori All Blacks, 3 for an All Blacks XV, and 18 for the All Blacks. He also played 5 matches for New Zealand Under-20 in 2011.