Louis Fouché

Vodacom Bulls flyhalf Louis Fouche has become the latest player to leave Loftus Versfeld after signing a one-year deal with the Ricoh Black Rams in Japan.

Fouche, who had a tough season with the Bulls, being dropped after the second game of this year’s Vodacom Super Rugby, has struggled to get back into the team with the likes of Jacques-Louis Potgieter and Handre Pollard ahead of him in the pecking order.

Since then, Fouche has played just a handful of games in the Vodacom Cup and decided to take up an offer in Japan to further his career there.

The deal is just for one year, and gives Fouche the option of returning to South Africa for the Super Rugby season next year. He is the third member of the Bulls to announce his departure this week, with lock Paul Willemse taking up a big money offer in Grenoble, France, while kicking consultant Vlok Cilliers has announced he will be moving to the Stormers at the end of the season.

Further moves are expected within the camp with a number of players still unsigned whose contracts are ending at the end of the season.

Veteran winger Akona Ndungane is still negotiating his contract for an extension, while top hooker Bongi Mbonambi has not yet signed his extension and it is feared the Bulls may well lose him from the end of the season.

The Bulls suffered two massive player exoduses in 2011 and 2013 but are struggling to keep their current crop of players in the country.

Fouche is not the first South African to join the Black Rams, with Wynand Olivier and Hottie Louw having played there before.