WP sign De Villiers and CJ

[User1245]

WP Rugby on Tuesday announced that Springbok centre Jean de Villiers has returned to the Newlands fold and will be available for Currie Cup and Super 15 duty until the end of the 2011 season.

De Villiers spent the past year with the Irish outfit Munster but has decided to return to South Africa with the intention of securing a place in the Springbok squad for the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.

The announcement was made by WP's Senior Professional Coach Rassie Erasmus and MD of WP Rugby (Pty) Ltd Rob Wagner at the High Performance Centre in Bellville.

The other big scoop for the union was the acquisition of prop CJ van der Linde who has just returned to South Africa after a two-year stint in Ireland with Leinster.

He will be playing for the Free State Cheetahs in the Currie Cup competition until the end of the year, and then takes up a one-year contact with Province for the 2011 season.

The Fiji-born wing Sireli Naqelevuki has parted ways with Newlands after his contract came to an end. He has returned to Fiji and has been named in his country's national team to play Japan over the weekend.

He produced some excellent performances during the Super 14 season and some European clubs have shown interest in him.

Flyhalf Peter Grant will not be around for the Currie Cup season as he has been given leave to play in Japan.

Despite several excellent performances for the Stormers this year, Grant has not found favour with Springbok coach Peter de Villiers and was overlooked for recent Springbok squads.

Grant will, however, return to Cape Town for the Super 15 season next year.

Saucy

Would of actually liked to see CJ go to the Lions, with SARU helping out financially. They need him.
JdV on the other hand is a mountain goat through and through.
Welcome back home guys.

 

[munstermuffin]

What about comments made by Peter De Villiers that Jean regrets signing for Munster,

 

[User1245]

If such an article exists, feel free to start a thread

 

[TRF_Olyy]

I thought JDV said, a few months ago, that he was interested in heading back to Munster after the world cup?
I could've imagined that though

Good signings either way, both great players. Wonder if JDV will stay in the SH after his 1year runs out, or head back to the NH

 

[TRF_Cymro]

Good signing for WP.

 

[Intercept King JDV]

11.Habana
12.JDV
13.Fourie

What a backline!
JDV however will have to play his way into the starting line-up, de Jongh is on fire at the moment

 

[Seaton]

De Villiers re-signs with WP, CJ coming

Surprised no posts about this.

I am honestly surprised the WP re-signed him.
I mean, what are they going to do about Juan de Jongh and Tim Whitehead?
I hope they loan one of the latter out to another CC side, as it would be a massive waste of potential.

Also see CJ has signed with the Stormers for next year.
Once again, what do they do with the other up and coming props they have?

 

[Boggle]

Apparently Jean called up P Divvy before he went up north to Munster to tell him he knows he's making a mistake leaving and that he would be back as soon as possible.

Personally I'm elated, not so much over CJ who I think we could do without (not a bad player though) but if JDV plays his way to starting #12 again that will be one of
the best provincial backlines I have ever seen.

Think Jean De Jong coul always play backup 13 for Fourie (since that's where he started anyway) and Tim Whitehead can be backup for De Villiers.

 

[munstermuffin]

Cheers Boggle couldn't find exact link but well it seems that JDV will be interested in returning to us after World Cup but even if JDV did say that which I doubt why does PDV be stupid enough to say it aloud.
But think Jean is great signing for WP but CJ is possibly injury prone but if he stays fit he can do job for them

 

[MunsterMan]

First of all, how reliable a source is PdV? not very. Still, IMO it's more likely he called P Divvy up when he couldn't get in to the Munster team. His attidude was pretty bad when he first arrived, but after that he worked hard and was invaluable to us and seemed to be fully enjoying himself here.

 

[Boggle]

His attitude was most likely not too good at the start because he thought he was making a mistake.

Remember, Jean De Villiers is one of the players who wants to play in a world cup more than anyone can imagine.
He has been painfully denied twice in a row now by injuries at the 11th hour and 59th minute (hell he even went to France just to get his bicep torn against Samoa) and I think he knew that if he was going to
be in Munster for the next 3 years he wasn't going to get picked for 2011.

Peter De Villiers explained that the reason he had no problem picking Jean De Villiers even though he is an over seas based player was that he did in fact phone PDV before flying up to tell him he was making a huge
mistake, telling him he would try and be back after a year.

Jean even mentioned a couple of months ago that he wanted to come home and he would love it for WP to take him back, that also should have proved that he was serious about it.

I'm not saying he hated it at Munster, as it sounds like he was going at it pretty well later on, but De Villiers is a WP man through and through, he probably missed it, and Springbok rugby
too much to continue playing for Munster right through the next world cup.