Jono Ross

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.”

46 Responses to Super Rugby: Bulls – Jono Ross released early to join Stade Francais

  • 31

    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

  • 32

    @ grootblousmile:
    Police
    Yes sir….on my very best behavior 😆

  • 33

    @ rebop75:
    What are your thoughts on SA born players (or those born in other countries) playing for France?

  • 34

    grootblousmile wrote:

    28 @ nortie:
    Misseur Le Cock Sportif

    Ek dog dis Steve Hofmeyr 😛

  • 35

    Bullscot wrote:

    15 @ rebop75:
    You mentioned him now needing to play a higher tempo passing game rather than merely a kicking game, in his early days at Blue Bulls if memory serves me correct he was seen as a player who was ‘more rounded’ and possibly not the best kicker as he had to wait for game time behind Derrick Hougaard.

    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

  • 36

    34 @ Victoriabok:
    Hehehe

    Steve is a “Rough Diamond”… and also a very rough Neil Diamond impersonator…

  • 37

    33 @ nortie:
    France has always had that, the French Foreign Legion… this lot is just rugby oriented… hehehe

  • 38

    Flok, ek moet seker rugby nuus soek… nê!

  • 39

    nortie wrote:

    @ rebop75:
    Howzit Rebop, welcome to RT.
    One question, how on earth can the French supporters manage to stick behind their team when the team is so erratic?
    It will drive me crazy knowing my team will lose to any opposition on any given day, and then, once every 4 years during the World Cup, they will pull off one surprise win against a better team, only to implode again and dish up mediocre rugby for the next 4 years.
    I take my hat off to you guys who still believe in and stand behind the team, even when they manage to come last in the 6 Nations

    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 !

  • 40

    grootblousmile wrote:

    33 @ nortie:
    France has always had that, the French Foreign Legion… this lot is just rugby oriented… hehehe

    😀

  • 41

    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 😆

  • 42

    nortie wrote:

    @ rebop75:
    What are your thoughts on SA born players (or those born in other countries) playing for France?

    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 !!!

  • 43

    Le Kokkerot (Kockott) is a good prospect for France.. I think he will play for a while!

  • 44

    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

  • 45

    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

  • 46

    BrumbiesBoy wrote:

    @ MacroBok:
    Don’t worry, Spies will surely be back soon, won’t he?

    Spies? I sure I typed that surname differently
    Whistling Thinking

Users Online

Total 43 users including 0 member, 43 guests, 0 bot online

Most users ever online were 3735, on 31 August 2022 @ 6:23 pm