He's back! And he's coming to haunt you...

That will be the intriguing question among Bulls devotees as Morne Steyn now actively re-joins the Loftus fold for the first time in some seven years – he wrapped up his 2013-and-onward obligations with Stade Francais on Saturday.

Steyn, 35, was a substitute in the 25-9 loss to Paris derby rivals Racing 92 at the weekend, as Argentinean star Nicolas Sanchez, four years his junior, started at flyhalf for the currently struggling club.

It raises the possibility that Steyn will have a similar role during Super Rugby 2020, which begins for the Bulls with a fixture against compatriots the Sharks in Durban on January 31.

Whatever his status within the matchday 23 by then, the first opportunity the Pretoria near-cult figure will have to sample the Loftus match-day vibe again will be when they play, in round four, the Blues there on February 22.

Steyn’s last match in the competition in Pretoria had come in now distant July 2013, the 26-23 home semi-final reverse to the Brumbies – his typically meaty 18 points off the kicking tee weren’t quite enough to see the hosts progress to the showpiece.

The veteran will return to a vastly different Bulls environment … in a sign of, among other factors, how crippling the exodus of SA players to overseas climes has been, not one of the starting XV that day will be around to greet him back in the fold.

Those to have moved on (or in some cases retired) subsequently include the likes of Akona Ndungane, JJ Engelbrecht, Jan Serfontein, Francois Hougaard, Dewald and Jacques Potgieter, Flip van der Merwe, Werner Kruger and Dean Greyling.

Indeed, a whole generation of more subsequent stars have also moved elsewhere ahead of the 2020 season, including Steyn’s illustrious successor at No 10, Handre Pollard (now also French-bound with Montpellier), RG Snyman, Jason Jenkins, Hanro Liebenberg and Jesse Kriel.

So it will be a “fresh start” for Steyn in more ways than one at the once-mighty franchise, who won the title three times during his earlier years in the camp (2007, 2009 and 2010).

How he gets deployed by coach Pote Human will be a reasonably delicate matter, as there is a huge gulf in experience between the returning Steyn and Manie Libbok, the 22-year-old who will begin just his third Super Rugby season shortly.

Former SA U20 star Libbok, who has already shown flashes of attacking genius though needs to improve his consistency, warrants a more extensive opportunity to settle into the No 10 jersey after naturally being well behind Pollard, a recent World Cup winner, in the Bulls’ pivot priority list for a couple of years.

At the same time, the Bulls still have a penchant for “taking the points” when they are offered through potential penalty shots at the posts, and that is where the 66-cap Springbok’s main strengths come appealingly into play; the ravages of ageing don’t necessarily translate into sudden frailty off the tee (or in more general tactical kicking).

Nowadays also offering possibilities as a stand-in fullback when required, Steyn returns to Super Rugby still as the country’s leading points-scorer in it: 1,467, and second only to Dan Carter (1,708) in tournament-wide history.

He holds other milestones like most points in a season (263) and most career dropped goals.

However much (or little) Steyn actually plays in the looming Super Rugby season, his mentorship should be invaluable to Libbok and other emerging flyhalves on the Bulls and Blue Bulls’ books.

But all those pecking-order considerations will remain of reasonably secondary value for the moment to the more nostalgia-laden of Bulls enthusiasts, who will simply be chuffed to see their blue-eyed boy imminently back in the corral …

He'll find super rugby is softer than he remembered. However, it'll be interesting to see where he is at now. I haven't seen him in a couple of years. 

Poor little twit.   The problem always was Morne virtually  never attacked gain lines - so what will be softer?   

Will not have to wait long before his friend Meyer join him in Pretoria as another unemployable.  The Bulls coach will be fired pronto if he selects Morne to play.          

And some folk wonder why we struggle in the Super Rugby comp. 

Can you imagine how strong our sides, including the Pro 14 teams, would be if all our players stayed at home!!!

And we used our top coaches and skilled off quotas. 

We would be unstoppable. 

"Can you imagine how strong our sides, including the Pro 14 teams, would be if all our players stayed at home!!!"

There we go again. Our system cannot accommodate all the overseas players. There are most probably more players abroad than what there ar e in the current Super Rugby system in total.

Surely he must have been recruited as the kicking coach.

Surely with all the money at the Bulls disposal that they would do such a move and hire him as a player.

???????

The really useless guy was Lambie, along with Wynand, JJ and Taute.

No Mozart

Lambie was ten times better than Morne and Wynand, JJ and Taute did not lose as many gmaes for the Springboks as Morne did.  

By the way your hero Meyer has also been given the boot by Stade Francais.  Next to go from Stade is Sloth Alberts - I am pretty sure of that,  

Great news

Welcome back home  Morne

DA

Morne was always interested in farming an he is more likely to go to the family farm  than playing any professional rugby.

The Bulls have lost both Pollard and Boshoff as flyhalfs and the y have no real replacements in place,   I think there will be some head-hunting to replace the flyhalfs.  They should have gone for Chait - who has gone to the Sharks - but there is still the flyhalf of the Tukkies Varsity Cup team (Thinus de Beer) who looks like a  nice prospect.

Lambie was a myth. He has a Currie Cup hand-off and a penalty kick to his name. He never had one good test in his career. Couldn't pass, tackle, had a pop-gun boot, was gutless and has no record of "getting the backline away".

Morné was a highly accomplished Bok. Does he still have it for the Bulls? I don't know, but, the inferior defences, lesser physicality and competition for possession will work in his favour. 

AO

Your take on players and coaches has always been total BS.   Morne was as useless as they come- the worst flyhalf over the last 15 years.   A highly accomplished Bok he never was - couldn't pass, tackle, had a pop-gun totally inaccurate boot, was gutless and has no record of getting the backline away.  

He has no chance of playing for the Bulls again - the new franchise owners will not allow it,

By the way your favourite useless coach Meyer is also on his way home to Pretoria after being effectively fired by Stade Francais - his sudden resignation was a face-saver - nothing else,   You gave him such high marks in everything - yet the vast majority of rugby lovers in SA and  the club ownership realize that he never was even a passable coach.   Plain and simple - clueless,        

Really? Morné is the worst Bok of all time and the worst 10 of all time yet he has the second-highest points per test ratio in Bok history (best points per minute of all players for the game time info I have going as far back as 2000). He was also comfortably the highest points scorer in the 2011 World Cup. He has over 80% success as a tackler. He also holds the most records of any Bok 10:

1. World record for most points scored by a player who has scored all their team's points (31).
2. Most points scored against New Zealand (31) in a single test
3. South African record for penalties in a test (8) – beating the seven achieved twice by former fullback and now kicking coach of South Africa, Percy Montgomery.
4. All of the above records achieved with his 31 points scored in the Tri Nations 2009 match against the All Blacks in Durban on 1 Aug 09
5. South African record for most points in a test against Australia.
6. Fastest 100 points by a Springbok (8 Test matches, 3 as replacement)
7. Fastest 200 points by a Springbok (16 Test matches)
8. Fastest 300 points by a Springbok (24 Test matches)
9. Fastest 400 points by a Springbok (33 Test matches)
10. Fastest 500 points by a Springbok (43 Test matches)
11. Fastest 600 points by a Springbok (50 Test matches)
12. Fastest 700 points by a Springbok (62 Test matches)
13. Most drop-goals in a Super Rugby season (11).
14. Most points scored against the All Blacks for a Springbok (31).
15. Most points in a Tri Nations match (31).
16. Most drop goals in a Super Rugby game (4) (in the 2009 Super 14 semi-final against the Crusaders)
17. Most drop goals in Super Rugby (25)
18. Most drop goals in a Super Rugby season (11 in 2009)
19. Most penalties in a Super Rugby season (51 in 2010)Most points in a Super Rugby season (263) – Beating Dan Carter's record of 221 set in 2006.
20. Most points by a Bulls player in Super Rugby history (1,467)
21. Most points by a South African and first South African to reach 1,000 points in Super Rugby (1,467)
22. Steyn also holds the record for most consecutive successful kicks at goal in Test play since statistics for that category were first kept in the late 1980s. He had a streak of 41 successful attempts that ended on 6 November 2010 against Ireland. The previous record was 36, held by Chris Paterson of Scotland.
    

“ He has no chance of playing for the Bulls again - the new franchise owners will not allow it,”

Jirre but “the new franchise owners” are a stupid bunch of fools. They allow the Bulls to re-sign MS only to have him sit around doing fokol. 

“ South Africa’s most capped fly-half Morne Steyn will leave French club Stade Francais at the end of the season and return to the Blue Bulls, the Super Rugby franchise announced on Tuesday.”

Well, you were never the best evaluator, now were you Saffy? Murray for the 2007 WC squad, Watson, Cooper over Carter, Lambie, Goosen, Kolisi, Notshe, JJ, Damian et al and a host of random names of players nobody has ever heard of who are "sure things" for the Boks. Yes, Morné - the only 10 of the decade to spearhead a high-powered attacking Bok side - is the worst ever. That must make Meyer the greatest coach of all time if he could pull that off with the worst! 

Ceradyne

Two things of note - first of all about 5 years ago there was a story in one of the newspapers about Morne with a photo of him on the family farm - saying how he looks forward to go farming once he retires from rugby.   

The second thing is that since the signing of the contract with Morne the ownership of the Bulls franchise was 51%  Bulls and 49% Remgro (ie Johann Rupert) - since then Rupert sold part of his shares to Motsepe and Motsepe bought out a further percentage of the shares of the Bulls from the franchise.  The shareholding at present is as follows:-

    Motsepe    37,25%

    Remgro     37,25%

    Bulls          25,5%

Being a minority shareholder at he time Remgro did not bother to veto the Steyn contract - they owned only 49% of the Bulls shares at the time.   Now the Motsepe-Rupert pair owns 74,5% of the shares and they are not going to let their money go down the drain with spending money on poor players like Morne.      

AO

Morne had one asset in playing rugby - he had an 80% record of converting goal kicks.   For the rest he was the worst flyhalf playing Super Rugby ever in SA.  He was a total loss in all other aspects of the game.  

Your favourite coach with all your imaginary qualities - he factually never had - was guess who - Meyer.   

You are blaming other members  for deficient player identification - yet whenever you support selection of players or the Springbok squad - accept that the player does not qualify for such selection.   The list is endless. so lets accept you are totally clueless  in that field.

By the way Goosen is a very good thinking player and is still a good enough player to play for a top club in France - while Morne was the routine bench player of Stade Francais,  Goosen was Player of the Year in France in 2016 and is a top performer - something Morne never was,    After he had  tiff with Racing Metro about a breach of Contract - Montpellier paid Racing Euro 1,5 million to buy out his contract.   Clubs do not waste money on useless players - so wrong as per normal again Doffies,      

"Ceradyne

Two things of note - first of all about 5 years ago there was a story in one of the newspapers about Morne with a photo of him on the family farm - saying how he looks forward to go farming once he retires from rugby. "

Steyn's old man does not own a farm. He is involved in some company dealing in electronics and security equipment if I remember correctly. I have done a number of searches trying to find any link to MS and/or his dad, Johan, linked to any farm or farming activities. So, if you insist, get us the evidence. 

"The second thing is that since the signing of the contract with Morne the ownership of the Bulls franchise was 51%  Bulls and 49% Remgro (ie Johann Rupert) - since then Rupert sold  of his shares to Motsepe and Motsepe bought out a further percentage of the shares of the Bulls from the franchise.  The shareholding at present is as follows:-

    Motsepe    37,25%

    Remgro     37,25%

    Bulls          25,5%

Being a minority shareholder at he time Remgro did not bother to veto the Steyn contract - they owned only 49% of the Bulls shares at the time.   Now the Motsepe-Rupert pair owns 74,5% of the shares and they are not going to let their money go down the drain with spending money on poor players like Morne."

In all the years of Remgro being involved with the Bulls, I cannot remember them interfering in anything regarding the players. Why would he, or Motsepe, for that matter, start doing so now? Even 49% is substantial shareholding enough for a shareholder to interfere in the running of a company if he so wishes. 

Morné had a pass only surpassed by Du Preez. We don't have one Bok who can pass like Morné. Not even Esterhuizen, who is our most skilled distributor amongst the backs. His long dart was a lethal weapon that unleashed many successful attacking movements. It was under-appreciated because Saffers like running more than passing. Big, dumb, dead-end running. It's only in the last year or so that we are seeing more South Africans speak of passing. Sadly, this is not an indicator that the penny has dropped, merely a new buzzword thrown around. 

Very well said Aug

You are wasting your time though

I have, and still do,sing the praises of Morne Steyn, and for Mike to call him gutless, with a totally inaccurate boot..... is fucking pathetic, especially when one only has to remember the game winning kick against the Lions when he was basically still a newbie...… and had the series win on his shoulders alone, in the dying seconds of the game, if I recall correctly

The best stats have already been provided by you Aug, and some people still won't accept it......… I don't mind people disputing his play, or the merits of his game, but to question or dispute his proven all time record stats is disgraceful

Such is the hate hey

Yes, I don't understand the Morné-hate. Not the most spectacular FH, but his record speaks for itself. 

Naas suffered the same flack....you will always have your haters...

DdA, Flo, Mostert, PSDT, Fransie, Matfield...it seems that the more fans they earn, the more haters the do too...it will never change. 

Draad 

Believe me - I do not hate any players,   When Meyer dropped Morne from the team once in 2012 and  twice in 2014 it had nothing to do with hatred - it had to do with substandard performance and that exactly was my problem with Morne.  

Matfield and Fransie used to be heroes of mine up to 2011.   I w as horrified with what I saw in respect of Steyn after his return from France in 2012 and that bad show continued in SR in 2013 to 2015.   Matfield on his return from retirement in 2011 was a huge let-down and that was a fact.  I supported the selection of Flo all out until 2015 - but realized by 2018 that he is not the player he used to be.  My approach is based on performance and only performance.

I believe hatred comes into the scene when performance is replaced by prejudice as the case has been for years iro Du Toit and De Allende. ,    

Sure, in other words... 

"Hey Draad my man, I don't hate any of the players. I love Cuntfield like a brother and even that fat useless bastard Fatso Steyn. It was just a little brotherly banter when I said he should have been thrown in the tash instead of the afterbirth. Nah, I definitely don't hate players not like that Auge. Man he thinks he is so smooth, with those devilishly good looks and charm. I hate that... Oh what was I saying? Ahh yeah, I'm just a lovable done to earth every day guy. A regular Uncle Buck."

Ceradyne

The first franchise Remgro tried to save was the Stormers - whom they gave a loan to get them out of the debt situation that bankrupted them and the idea was to keep them afloat and pay there costs like salaries of the players,  The idea on their part was also  that Remgro would make suggestions to stop the financial rot of the franchise through sound financial management.   That was not acceptable to the crooks whose mission really was to enrich themselves.  The wheels of the agreement came off within a year and the Stormers did not pay back a cent on the loan and the interest attached to it,

It was only at he end of 2017 that Remgro became involved in the Bulls through acquiring a 49%  stake in the franchise.   The result in the first year was to get a new administrative structure in place and that was the sum-total of the Remgro involvement up to the time when the new ownership structure I referred to was introduced about three months ago,  In fact Remgro was not involved with the Bulls in "all the years" claimed by you - the company only became involved after it was clear that they would make no headway with the Stormers/WP set-up.             

Dave

No wonder you don't have credibility on this forum..... your childish ignorance towards hard cold facts just illustrates why so many people make fun of you on this forum.

You honestly want to argue with those facts..... so Morne had an inaccurate boot?...…. He was gutless?

Your response to me was typical...…. just start insulting people.... yet you are the ignorant …..and stupid one

DA

There is always a problem with understanding of the situation as to Morne - he really was tops in  kicking at goal.  

However, his kicking our of hand was not even remotely accurate and often plainly poor.  That is why even commentators over the air called it BS at times,   In fact Morne's  all-round game is where  he did fail badly, .   

Mike

I have no problem at all with people disagreeing with any opinion of mine, or others on this forum, because it would be incredibly boring if we didn't.

However, when you insult a player, who has very clearly been a record holder in so many aspects of our rugby history, as a Springbok player...… and you call him gutless and totally inaccurate with the boot, then yes, I think it is pathetic.

Morne Steyn's records above... are incredible.... in the context of how old our rugby is and who else has played in Morne's position over the many years...…….and you cannot achieve those figures and records without having the necessary skills to do it...... and more importantly...….maintain it over a long period of time

Unless you are as dumb and ignorant as Saffex and will probably make it out that Morne was just incredibly lucky all that time

DA

I always said Morne gained prominence in kicking at goal where he maintained an 80%  success rate throughout the years he played as a Springbok.  

However, there was also a downside to his playing career and that relates to the rest of his game in aspects he was weak in.   He routinely was a player who stood too deep in the pocket and consequently he jeopardized the functioning of the backline.  He extremely rarely carry balls into contact and attacking the gain line - which put pressure on the recipient of the ball in the event of him passing the ball,   The defenders did go for possible recipients in such event - while actually ignoring Morne.   As he kicked balls repetitively the opposition wings and full back fell back to receive balls and the result often enough was his kicking game represent possession handovers.   The problem was that kicks were too far ahead to allow for decent follow-ups to put recipients under pressure and gave the opposition acres of space to run into.     Most of his out-of-hand kicking can be classified as aimless rather than strategic.  

The whole problem was summed up neatly by Hansen before the 2014 test in Johannesburg after Morne was replaced by Pollard because of extremely poor game by Morne in the Aussie test in Perth - it was the last test he started in tests under Meyer.  Hansen said that the AB's knew what to expect from Morne, but did not know what Pollard would be capable of.   In the test Pollard scored two tries and it was in fact the only test win against the AB's in the Meyer era.

Morne started in two tests against the AB's under Coetzee and both tests turned out to be disasters.  The AB's scored 114 points in those two tests and the only answer of the Springboks were 15 points gained from kicking at goal by Morne.   His defense took a dive against both the Aussies and the AB's,   In the Aussie test in Perth I referred  to Morne  made 8 tackles and missed 7 - and the fact is in the last three tests he played against the AB's  his defense was extremely poor as well.    

My main problem with Morne was always the fact that predictability was the most noticeable aspect of his performances and far too often his inaccurate out-of-hand kicking game.    I think that was also his problem in playing for Stade Francais,   He became the routine bench player for the Club and in the end he was forced to leave the club without the laurels expected from a top test player.           

That is t he impression I had of Morne as a player.  He was always loyally supported by Bulls supporters and not supported by the rest of the public on the basis I referred to above.       

Hey Ou Maaikie. Found the evidence about Morne's farming background yet?

No  and I am not going to look for it either.    I saw an article years ago as well as  a photo of him on the farm. amidst some cattle.      I do not waste my time with dear Morne - a ru gby dud at nest.  

Lol @ Vlag

Ja Davey

I now fully understand why people mock you on here

Players that were so shit, their coaches just dragged them around for all those years and even though they were completely and utterly out of their depth...…. they just managed to break some all time SA rugby records in fewer matches than other great players .

It all makes sense

Morne, who in '09 created a world record by scoring all 31 points against the ABs. A great Bok, regardless of what the two ous, Dawie & Maaik might say.