Jono Ross
The Blue Bulls Company has granted Vodacom Blue Bulls loose forward Jono Ross an early release from his contract to allow the player the opportunity to join the French club, Stade Francais.
Ross will join the Paris-based club on 1 December 2014.
Vodacom Blue Bulls coach Frans Ludeke admitted that it was a set-back losing a former captain and versatile loose forward, but pointed to the huge stock of talented players that will still be available to the Blue Bulls Company in 2015.
Bulls Media Release
“Jono provided leadership and played at six, seven and eight for us when our loose forward department was depleted due to injuries, but thanks to our junior structures, the return of injured players and some new signings we have a strong group for next year,” Ludeke said.
“We have seen the likes of Jacques du Plessis, Roelof Smit and Janse van Rensburg breaking into the senior ranks despite being juniors, while Lappies Labuschagne also joined from the Cheetahs. With Springboks Pierre Spies and Arno Botha also returning to action and some proven players already on our books, we will have a very competitive group amongst our loose forwards,” Ludeke said.
“We want to thank Jono for his contributions and wish him well.”
Based again on french traditionnal fan of Toulouse forum (capitouls)
the choice against vermaak may change during the year
as they find doussain slow for the position
Vermaak did some good matchs last year (at stade francais for example)
the wheel may turn but he has not really improved since he arrived
a bad habit for foreigners going to toulouse…
lately the club had difficulties to integrate new players
last example is luke burgess who at the end was not even considered though he had very good debut for the club
having a former scrum half as back row trainer (elissalde) can be more difficult than we think
@ grootblousmile:
Yes sir….on my very best behavior 😆
@ rebop75:
What are your thoughts on SA born players (or those born in other countries) playing for France?
grootblousmile wrote:
Ek dog dis Steve Hofmeyr 😛
Bullscot wrote:
In 2005 the first line flyhalf Derrick Hougaard got injured and Morne played at 10 for the Currie Cup
The Bulls scored the most tries that year with him on flyhalf
He can run and pass if he wants to
34 @ Victoriabok:
Hehehe
Steve is a “Rough Diamond”… and also a very rough Neil Diamond impersonator…
33 @ nortie:
France has always had that, the French Foreign Legion… this lot is just rugby oriented… hehehe
Flok, ek moet seker rugby nuus soek… nê!
nortie wrote:
well I will be there… as I was two years ago…and at next year WC
and my prediction are… low
the english endured 100 hundred years of boring rugby it has only slightly changed since the last three years…
so Excuse ME !
we have a physical problem
tough matchs all season long
while you can afford to play against cripples like jono ross…. (so it is what I heard…)
we will be better at WC with a proper preparation
but this time we have a lack of talent
france used to have each year one of the best player (or the best) at a couple of positions
it is not the case anymore
could you quote our best player ? (dusautoir being a ghost)
I doubt it
france was good when our pack could be dominant
we frighten nobody upfront … these days
But we always hope
everybody knows mental is important in rugby
and sometimes we can get the mojo to beat anybody….
i was at the stadium last time we beat australia 33-6 i can not explain why but after 5 minutes the crowd knew we would win or if not at least make a good match
same feeling last year against england…
our trainer is depressing
everybody mocks us
as in new zealand at last WC
best moment for a resurection
we play mediocre rugby since….2005/2006 with some great wins from time to time…
allez les bleus !
grootblousmile wrote:
😀
39 @ rebop75:
Great stuff….I do hope Ross plays well over there, he wasn’t very popular in SA, except from us who don’t support the Bulls, we like him 😆
nortie wrote:
I am pretty old school
means I played at university level
where the shirt (no matter where you come from) only was important
will I believe in them playing for France or dying for the shirt
for spedding clearly yes he really seems to believe in it as did de villiers
for others I am not convinced
but it is a bad message for our youngs
or may be it will kick their ass !!!
Le Kokkerot (Kockott) is a good prospect for France.. I think he will play for a while!
42 @ rebop75:
That does seem to be the general consensus, but with so many Southern Hemisphere players playing in the Top 14, especially in key positions, how are the young French players supposed to gain experience and establish themselves?
A team like Toulon and Boudjella has proven that you can buy success, even if it is short term success, and that isn’t always what is best for French rugby in the long run
that is one of our big problems
+
insurance limitations to scrumage
difficult for a prop to emerge (and we know it take times)
same for wingers where we have a lot of players from the pacific islands
same for the N°10
the youngs do not have a competition for them to begin to play like your varsity cup or anglo-welsh cup in britain
this year the clubs not qualified for the big european cup used the challenge cup to have their youngs play
and we now know we can count on some of them 1 second row (21y)and one flanker(19y) at least
only stade francais paris racing toulouse and bayonne (4 out of 14) have some homegrown players, even toulon has some nice young players (they like clermont have a tradition for being a winning team in youth competitions)
it is even difficult to make them progress with loans in lower division
one of our promising 9 clement daguin plays at second division level on a loan basis
but it is difficult I guess for the trainer to let him play more than those who will stay next year
and we even begin to take young players from other rugby countries to train in our academies…
this need to be changed
but our federation knows that for years…
england had this probleme when they were richer
now they give an incentive to clubs who use a certain number of english players
we do the same since last year but the amount is ridiculous
at stade francais the president wants to build on formation
i hope it will work so that others follow
the law is a bit against us with EU and the bosman ruling to try to limit the number of foreigners
it is the easy way to build a team
and with the number of injuries you need a quick replacement from a foreign competition that just end
at the end only a couple of foreign players are really above average per team may be 5/6 but we have a lot more
it is this gap we should work on
but the problem goes deep into divisions til the fourth division level I would say where you have foreigners paid only for playing rugby and french with a real work…and rugby
difficult to compete
BrumbiesBoy wrote:
Spies? I sure I typed that surname differently
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