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Bulls head coach Jake White looks like he is closing in on adding another Springbok veteran to the blue ranks in Pretoria – according to reports in South Africa.
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White now wants to reunite with the former Springboks hooker Bismarck du Plessis, who left French club Montpellier at the end of the last season, exiting his contract with a year early. Having arrived in 2015, the world champion hooker has played over 100 times in the Montpellier colours, establishing himself as one of the spearheads of a pack White coached before leaving in 2017.
The 37-year-old was linked with a move to the Cheetahs in 2020, but it now looks like his former head coach at MHR, the Cell C Sharks and in the South African national set-up wants him to make the switch to the revived Bulls franchise. White has already convinced the likes of Marcell Coetzee, Arno Botha, Gio Aplon, Ruan Combrinck, Jacques du Plessis and Johan Goosen to return to SA.
According to respected South African news outlet Rapport, talks between the renowned hooker and the Bulls are “progressing positively”.
And Du Plessis appears up for the challenge of at least one more year.
In an interview with Jon Cardinelli in SA Rugby Mag earlier this month, the notoriously physical hooker, who is back on South African soil suggested there may still be fuel left in tank in terms of his career.
“I’ve been blessed to go through my career with relatively few injuries and to play for so many great teams for a long period. My fitness regime and my diet have played a role in that,” he told the magazine. “I’ve been very strict with my body and when I’ve played I’ve tried to maintain a high physical standard. You can’t back down just because you’re a bit older. In a sense, I’m grateful I was pushed so hard in my early days at Free State and the Sharks. I have tried to keep pushing the limits over the course of my career.”
“I’m not sure what’s in the future for me as a player.”
