Bok hooker Marx commits long-term future to Japanese champions

Springbok hooker Malcolm Marx has signed a contract extension that will see him keep plying his trade in Japan until 2025.

READ | Four Boks crack nod in Japan League One's Best 15

The Japan League One season concluded over the weekend, with Marx's Kubota Spears upsetting the Wild Knights 17-15 in the final to claim their maiden title.

The Kubota Spears, who are coached by former Lions and Bulls mentor Frans Ludeke, announced on Monday that Marx and Australian pivot Bernard Foley had put pen to paper on new contracts that will run until the end of May 2025.

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Marx first joined the Kubota Spears in 2021 after playing for the Shining Arcs in 2020.

The former Lions hooker is one of six South Africans in Kubota's squad. The others are Ruan Botha, Schalk Erasmus, David Bulbring, Rikus Pretorius, Gerhard van den Heever and Japan-capped Pieter "Lappies" Labuschagne.

Marx, meanwhile, also cracked a nod in the Best Fifteen of Japan's League One. He is one of three Springboks named in the team, the others being loose forwards Kwagga Smith (Shizuoka Blue Revs) and Pieter-Steph du Toit (Toyota Verblitz), and scrumhalf Faf de Klerk (Canon Eagles).