Old and young will unite for the Bulls as Jake White’s charges look to make an early home charge on the United Rugby Championship league standings.
The Bulls have never lost at home in 13 matches to northern hemisphere teams in the URC and this week they returned from a four-match tour up north, to be greeted enthusiastically with their returning World Cup-winning Springboks.
Marco van Staden, Kurt-Lee Arendse and Canan Moodie were returning to familiarity, having been Bulls regulars in the URC, but it is the veteran Willie le Roux who was making the personal introductions as a new signing.
Le Roux, at 34 years old, needs no rugby introduction. His playing pedigree has contributed towards two successive Springbok World Cup successes, and he averages close to a 70% win record in his 93 Test matches.
Moodie, sensational in seasons one and two of the URC, is still just 21, and while he was not used in the World Cup play-offs, he is among the most lethal finishers in the game, and has already made several statement performances in 10 Tests, in which he is yet to experience defeat.
Moodie, a product of Boland Landbou in the Western Cape, can play fullback, either wing and outside centre, and his development and growth over the next four years will be one of the highlights as Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus builds towards an unprecedented third successive World Cup title.
Arendse had a wonderful World Cup, starting at wing in all the play-off matches and Van Staden showcased his versatility in alternating between playing to the ball as a loose-forward and providing support as a hooker.
Le Roux certainly has not come home for a pension payout, and his international aspiration remains in his pursuit of that 100-Test milestone.
The Bulls are getting back four quality performers, who are all on top of their game.
Moodie, Arendse and Van Staden unite opinion, but Le Roux’s style of play has always divided views among South African supporters. There are those who constantly question his value to the national cause and there are those who refuse to entertain any criticism of the player’s worth. The latter swear by Le Roux and have always found comfort in those many professional coaches who share their enthusiasm for Le Roux’s attacking skill set, his game management from fullback, his ability to be a second playmaker as the first receiver and his all-round experience that has taken him all over the world for 300-plus professional matches.
Le Roux, raised in the Cape’s Strand and schooled at the famed Paul Roos Gymnasium in Stellenbosch, had to leave the Western Cape to further his international ambition. He played 39 matches for Boland’s Cavaliers between 2010 and 2011 but never cracked the Stormers squad.
And so his journey began, first to Kimberley (and Griquas), then up the road to Bloemfontein (and the Cheetahs) and then to Japan’s Canon Eagles between 2015 and 2017.
In between this, he had made his Test debut in 2013 and played in a World Cup in 2015.
He would return to South Africa and play for the Sharks in 2016, before being lured to Wasps in England for three years, leading into the 2019 World Cup in Japan, and Japan, home to his first World Cup victory, would also become his rugby home at Toyota Verblitz for the next five years.
Now Le Roux is back in South Africa, in what is likely to be his swansong, and he is determined to join the elite Springboks Centurion club, of which World Cup-winning fullback Percy Montgomery was the original member.
Le Roux certainly has not come home for a pension payout, and his international aspiration remains in his pursuit of that 100-Test milestone.
This week the Bulls youngsters spoke of his immediate impact, of his mentoring and tutoring, of his conditioning and fitness and of his skill set. He was, they said, leading the way at training, which was music to White’s ears and confirmation that his investment in Le Roux’s experience, however short-term, will be as significant to a Bulls first-ever URC title as the youth brigade, led by Moodie.
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