Are Morne's Bulls days numbered now too?

The Bulls have signed Paarl Gimnasium and Baby Boks flyhalf Handre Pollard until 2015, according to Die Burger newspaper.

According to reports, the contract was signed as far back as last year already.

Pollard, 18, will captain the WP Craven Week side at next month's tournament.
 

----------UPDATE----------

Andre Pollard recently confirmed to WP Rugby, and is on public record in the newspapers, that his son has not signed any contract and that they will speak to WP Rugby, his home province, before any such decision is made.

He has, however, confirmed that Handré has received offers from the Bulls and Sharks.

In terms of the SARU rules and regulations, those Unions would need to notify WP Rugby and afford the home Union the opportunity to meet or beat their offers, before any deal could be concluded.
 

A bit of a long shot headline there Gareth, seeing as though Pollard has not even signed yet. Having said that, this Pollard kid sounds like a serious talent.

 Quite correct in terms of the new SARU rules they cannot sign a schoolkid. Plus they need permission from western Province first. At this stage it's only a rumour.

Hopefully WP have the cash to offer the kid a contract as soon as he is old enough according to the new rules.

In light of the update, good news for the Bulls, but bad news for Province. Unfortuntely, this is the professional era showing its ugly face again, but we must just accept it and get over it. As long as the real talents can all be Springboks one day, I will remain happy. One has to wonder why Province does not have the cash to keep players like this....or why the Bulls do?

Actually, to answer my own question, the reason the Bulls have the cash and not Province, is because the Bulls have actually won something in the last 10 years. I hear sponsors like that!!!!

The reason is because the clubs rule WP rugby. They then milk the professional arm. Hence club rugby thrives and we lose our talent left right and center.

We and the Free State keep the parasitic bulle and sharks alive. That is how it works. WP need to reform and get in place a ssytem that ensures our talent remains down here. WP and Free State are the real rugby regions in SA.

With ties to free state I still get so annoyed for them and I completely agree that these players should remain in their provincial teams, but this is not a problem unique to our provincial teams.

This is world wide problem at every level of all sport.

 free state is no breeding ground for rugby players. 

That is a misconception reated by Grey college. They are the only premier school in the province consistently in the top 10. but they don't just get kids from the Free State. They get kids from all over Northern Cape And Eastern Cape.

Paarl and stellenbosch are 2 towns, with 3 schools consistantly in the top 10. Hell Paarl as a town does better.

Some good points there Ek, but we can all argue about who bought which player from which union, but at the end of the day, players will go where the money is. It ain't pretty, but it is the way of the modern sporting world.

@Ek. I think you are not 100% correct. The Bulls, or any othet union, would not need the permission of WP to sign him. WP only has the first option to sign him. In other words, if they don't want him to go to the Bulls, or anywhere else for that matter, they have to sign him themselves. Otherwise they could refuse them permission to sign him, but then not sign him themselves, and then he is stuck.

@ceradyne,

what if the bulls offered more money then WP, would the player then be allowed to sign with the bulls over WP??? or does the first dibs rule override that???

Not so sure about this one - I can remember having a chat with Malherbe's father when he was still at school.    He told me that the Bulls were also eyeing his son - but that Western Province offered him a contract when he comes out of school and this is likely the situation here.   I think they are playing the same game here - start a rumour to see what the provincial set up would do.   As what was said earlier - franchises cannot sign up school kids - so I do not believe this rumour.

 This is one that we will have to wait until January or December when Pollard is done with School. I will stick to the fact that this is a rumour. However I won't say the rumour is Bullshit, just unsubstantiated.

i live in the stellenbosch area and to be honest this area provides the most pro rugby players than any other area in the cape. this is really boland area and wp manage to blur the border lines to tap into that production line or rugby players

really hope pollard signs other unions than wp and blue bulls. wp and blue bulls dont develop backline talent. wp always had but there system has changed dramaticly the last 5 odd years. and the bulls has never had a backline to to give the opposing teams sleepless nights. all i want is his skills and talent being developed into n free thinking all round player and not a robotic kicker like morne steyn. that will be the biggest waste of talent ever.