"Pollard joins a host of Baby Bok teammates that are already contracted to the Bulls next year, including IRB Junior World Championship Player of the year Jan Serfontein and fellow nominee Shaun Adendorff".
No wonder this lot are still contenders for the Super15- they get all of the talent.
Slim Sadie has not had such a good year though at the Bulls- he played much better at the Stormers.
The Bulls are worse than Japan
Do not know about Pollard signing for the Bulls - since signing of school kids are not permitted in SA. Maybe he made some promise to join the Bulls - since they really need a proper flyhalf.
Is it a matter of stealing, or is it a matter of pro-active planning to make sure that you have depth. Or maybe this comment to a Supersport article is closer to the truth:
Johan Stander · Top Commenter
Dit bewys maar net weereens hoe onbevoeg die WP se rugbybestuur is....Hoekom weet die Bulle al twee jaar van sy talent terwyl die WP nou eers wakkerskrik en hom nou skielik wil behou? Miskien meer bekwames aanstel soos in die verlede ipv die spul regstellende aksies.JS Weet nie waarvan hy praat nie, Polard is alreeds laasjaar genooi om saam met die Stormers te oefen, hulle was deeglik bewus van sy talent. Indien hulle wel sy dienste bekom het, was dit op 'n ontoelaatbare wyse en het hulle en hy en sy pa in kwader trou opgetree.
The Stormers and WP is perfectly aware of MOST of the talent in their area, it is however impossible to give them all big contracts, some may slip the web and go to other provices. Thats life.
The new rule says a union cannot sign a schoolboy from another union without discussing with that union first and giving them first option. WP obviously had no interest in Pollard otherwise they would have signed him. No stealing at all!
Spot-on Blue2. Now if only the rest of the Stormers/WP fans would realise that. However the DbDraads are few and far between, and a lot of them just do not see it the way Draad does. They see it as stealing. Finish and klaar.
I have said it for years now the bulle are a parasitic union living off imports from WP and the Cheethas. They simply do not breed rugby players in Pretoria. Lets be honest we and the Cheethas keep these plonks afloat. They are like circling vultures when it comes to spotting talent. Unclean birds of pray. Reaping where they have not sown. The vilest of oaks!
A match with the bulle is becoming a WP versus WP game. Hahahahahhahahahahahaha
That said we hav bunch of plonkers running WP. The proof of that was the departure of Mallet and Rassie who couldn't stomach the nonsense and the way the game is run down here. Clubs rule the roost and milk the professional arm. Oh for the day when there is genuine reform.
By the way the Draads of the world are in the vast majority as all know what a parasite union the bulle are. Waaahahahahahahahaha
Of course ou windpomp thinks its highly commendable that Preoria has to import all this talent. My suggestion is you try and get locals coming through and have some self respect! Bwahahahahahahaha thats asking a lot from ou windpomp and co! PArasites they are!
Firstly:
The rule states until after craven week if I am not misteken, so I think sighning on the 18 year olds is open.
Secondly:
This has to do with long term planning as well, The bulls have had their eye long term on Pollard since u 16. Same with Western Province. The rumour is they opted for Timo Swiel and Pieter Jordaan. How talented jordaan is I still have to see. We as spectators have no idea what those guys long term planning is. And If province opted for someone else then they made their decision. It has nothing to do with as someone up there indicated to Province's incompetence from managment. They most probably planned long term to get Swiel and Jordaan. I have to say though if Jordaan is anything like his older brother he would be a good buy. And we all know how talented Timo Swiel is.
This in not a fault on the Bulls part! Western Province rugby had first choice on this fellow and they didn't take it, why is that the Bulls fault? This is a PROFESSIONAL ERA, learn to deal with it. If you can't, go and live in a jungle somewhere. I also don't like it, but it is the way sport is in the modern age! And biatching about it isn't going to change anything. All the unions are scouting players from wherever they can, Western Bloody Province included. If they aren't as good at it as the other unions, then the problem still lies with them.
If Province indeed preferred Swiel and Jordaan, then what must Pollard do? Stay in the Cape and play club rugby? The fact is that Heyneke Meyer was instrumental in getting him into the U/20 side for this specific tournament, following the injury to Goosen, because he has known about him for a long time. It was only when they saw, in the JWC tournament, what he really can do. Then they suddenly jumped onto the bandwagon and started pising themselves about his future move to the Bulls. Had he not played for the Baby Boks, nobody would have said a word about Pollard and the Bulls, and somewhere along the line, when he plays for the Bulls, somebody would have mentioned that he was actually from the Cape.
Well Said Ceradyne
It is a professional sport. Players are commodities. Get over it already. No one is stealing no body, it is simply commercial enterprise at work.
Better these young guys play somewhere instead of 2nd or 3rd in line. Provinces have first choice - their fault if they let the talent walk or make a bad decision between players, but a player is going to go somewhere they have opportunity and they are appreciated / valued.
to be very honest i would have been a lot happier to see pollard play for a team that develops and promotes backline play to ensure that he as a player can develop and learn his trade. with the bulls history in regards to backline play in general i fear he will be becom another kickin one dimensional player like morne steyn.....RIP handre pollard. the sharks or cheetahs would have been a much better option for him.
Wp rugby union and there management does not have any interest in signing young talent seeing that there management is very much only focused other things outside of rugby.
politics ext ext are rife in the WP rugby union
Carpetmuncher there can be no doubt at all that WP is badly run because of the plonkers who have gained control. Very sad a sWP is unquestionably the powehouse of SA rugby. Witness how we keep the bulle afloat with players! As I mentioned also - the departures of Mallet and Rassie speak volumes as do the loss of players to the parasitic bulle.
the bulls arent parasitic at all...they are just much more street wise and if unions like your WP does not understand the importance of good goverance then they are slowly killing themselves...as i said also in other posts all the good work that rassie has done be slowly undone by the current management plunders at the WP. just like a company if a company is steered into the wrong direction then it wont be long until they go belly up
Carpetmuncher I agree with your statements about WP. However, the bulle are parasites importing from all other provinces especially WP. Yes hey are good at that I admit and have previuosly admitted as much.
BUT becaue they dont breed players and develop them in house they are parasites. I would have a half a grain of respect for them if they stopped importing so much and developed their own players from their own region. Bwahahahahhahahahaha Beeno sums it up in masterful sentence!!
End of Story.
Question? Can a "powerhouse" that is run by plonkers who do not understand the importance of good governance, and who are the original inventors of being parasites really be classified as unquestionably being the powerhouse of SA rugby? In my view, and given what we have been told how they are run, could they not well be the mamparras of SA rugby? Just asking.
Ceradyne, herein lies the answer to your question:
"In my view, and given what we have been told how they are run...."
Do we believe everything what we are bieng told?
Or do we consider some facts rather from the outside?
How can such incompetence then still be competitive?
This is the view of some people, Not all seem to agree. And if such drastic incompetance was present why would there be success?
I am not saying some poepl are wrong about the incompetance, i am saying we should not neceserely loan our ears out to everyone's opinions, but rather form our own.
Just my 2 cents.
@Ek. LOL. True. maybe I should rephrase:
"Can a "powerhouse" that is supposedly run by plonkers who do not understand.........................."
believe me there is a lot and i do mean a lot of backroom arm wrestling going on in WP management all lead by the ultra racist thelo wakefield. i cant say how i know this but he is the main reason being people like rassie leaving players signings players leaving ext ext.
Give another 5 to 10 odd years then the WP will be were they were a few years back mark my words. the local schools ext are the real force behind the production lines of rugby players in the WP union with at least half of the top rugby schools in the WP. so the structures in the WP will always produce young talent but no one can blame the bulls for signing these players. this is a professional era and this is the natural order of things. if the money is there then why not sign him ????
understood Carpet, And yes there might be infighting going on, no-one is disclaiming that. However I will answer with some more questions.
Does infighting constitute to incomptetance?
Does the opinions of one man and the subsequent result there of not rather point to the incompetance of other men for not standing up to that?
Will there not always be infighting where strong willed people are vying for leadership?
Where a bunch of strong willed people vying for leadership have different pinions, wiil the strongest not stand up at the end?
Then would this not rather be a strong point than a weakness if the strongest leader then stands up?
Would infighting then not be a good way to make leadership strong?
How doe we know that other unions aren't just bieng non-transparent in their doings and that the same kind of in fighting does not occur there?
These are all relevant questions you should rather ask yourself, Not just point fingers.
Lastly on your last comment about them not signing Pollard, how do you know that there wasn't enough money? maybe they opted out of choice to sign someone else. Timo Swiel ? Pieter Jordaan?
We make assumptions too quickly witiout asking questions.
first off i did not say WP does not have the money...it was just a mere statement of fact and more a general statment in reference to professional rugby. the message that i was trying to convey was if any union in the professional era has the money then whey not sign any player of your choosing. this was in reference in people crying fowl over the bulls signing all these junior talent.
in regards to the wp rubbish management structures. i know for a fact for sources that are part of the internal management of things being done that will make your skin crawl. in your remark in regards to incomptetance if the general management or "driving force" is not intended towards rugby in this instance then in most people will consider that style of totalitarianism goverance that is racialy motivated as incompatent. there goal is not for the strength or betterment of rugby but rather there own personal agendas and the fufilment of themselves at the cost of the "greater" good of rugby in there union. that is incompetance to the extreme.
everyone that is there for the rugby and the betterment of rugby are being forced out and being replaced by BEEE fatcats that aren not a least bit interested in creating a winning culture like the bulls ext have. rassie did try this and he was worked out for it. i am not pointing fingers at all...for me personally from a team support perspective i dont mind that the WP are going backwords but in terms of SA rugby as a whole WP needs to clean there house.
Carpetmuncher I am sure there are BEE fatcats - they are almost everywhere these days adding Zip value a dbenefiting only themselves.
Corne Krige wrote a scathing piece in the Sunday times re WP governance etc. Unless all this is rectified we are set for the doldrums in years to come dispite the talent we have here. What Rassie built up will disipate over time and players also will not want to come here.
I fear these guys are well entrenched though and hence I am not too hopful over the longer term. The simple facts are that theprofitable professional arm is being milked by the clubs s otha tthey have a considerably smaller budget than the bulle. rassie in a meeting I attended told the audience he had a significantly smaller budget than the bulle. This is rediculous.
