Bools signing players loosing players

Ex Supersport

Vodacom Bulls loose forward Jono Ross will be hoping the next fortnight goes well as he undergoes a trial at English club Saracens.

The hastily-arranged offer will see Ross trial at the club – which has strong ties through the Bulls financial partner SAIL – for the next two weeks in the hope of scoring a contract there.

Ross, who captained the victorious Varsity Cup champion side UP-TUKS and also the Vodacom Cup Blue Bulls side was only told of the offer on the weekend and had to decide within hours if he was going to take up the challenge.

With a plethora of loose forwards currently at the Bulls and little prospect of Ross being able to break into the Currie Cup or Super Rugby side this year, it was decided that he would be better served by gaining some game time at Saracens.

“We thought it would be best for Jonno, as he had the opportunity and we didn’t want to stand in his way,” Bulls coach Frans Ludeke told SuperSport.

With the Bulls enjoying the likes of Deon Stegmann, Pierre Spies, Dewald Potgieter, Jacques Potgieter, Jean Cook, CJ Stander, Shaun Adendorff and Wian Liebenberg on their books, the former St Stithians and SA under-20 flanker would have struggled to do more than hold tackling bags for the rest of the year.

Ross is the third loose forward – after CJ Stander’s contract with Munster and Daniel Adongo’s move to Counties-Manakau to look for greener pastures elsewhere.

His contract is up for review at the end of October and it makes sense for the Bulls to allow him the opportunity to prove himself at Saracens.

Two points of interest. One - are the player greedy bulle signing on too many players and then not being able to give them game time? bulle i sno good poaching for the sake of poaching!!! Where do these guys get all this cash - underworld connections?. Something fishy going on?

Secondly there seems to be a trend developing where talented young SA players who cant break into the big time here go and play in the "big" time in the NH  - where so many of our lessor players become stars in the easier rugby environment. UK rugby is  becoming like a second league South African competition!! Hahaahhahahahahaha  

Trouble is these youngsters  might enjoy the easy life and big money and not want to come home and play some hard rugby.

To illustrate further. The bulls have the following young centers:

JJ Engelbrecht, Johan Sadie and Francois Venter, as well as SA under-20 stars William Small-Smith, IRB Junior Player of the year Jan Serfontein and Dries Swanepoel. Wynand Olivier will also be back after 6 months with the Japanese club the Black Rams.

They cannot possibly keep all those players. Small Smith in any case is far too intelligent to be playing for the bulle!!!

this is where saru needs to step in and allow these players to play for other south african unions. this is not good for SA rugby that all the best talent is playing in one union. these players will be much more of a factor in other unions like the sharks, cheetahs and the lions. catch a wake up call SARU. we are feeding the other nations with rugby.

These youngsters should aslo think again - why go to a union where game time will be at a premuim and bench sitting the norm. The bulle, like the nz refs, have now overplayed their poaching  hand!  Wait for the exodus.