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Ruan Pienaar signs for the Toyota Cheetahs

By Online Editors

10 Jul 2019

Ruan Pienaar's despair and the dejection of his teammates during a defeat at Newcastle has been typical of Montpellier's season (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Ruan Pienaar is making a return to the PRO14, but it’s not with his beloved Ulster Rugby.

Pienaar left his Montpellier contract a year early, with many predicting some sort of return to Belfast being on the cards.

However the Free State Cheetahs (Pty) Ltd have confirmed the signing of former Springbok scrumhalf who “wishes to further his rugby career in the Free State”.

Ruan signed a two-year contract with the Toyota Cheetahs.

A club statement reads: “The skilful player represented the Springboks in 88 test matches. Ruan experience in Guinness PRO14 will be valuable for the Toyota Cheetah as he represented the Irish side from Belfast in 141 matches between 2010 and 2017.

“Pienaar was named at scrum-half in the Magners League Team of the Year for the 2010/11 season and also scooped the Magners League player of the Year award which was voted for by his peers.

“Pienaar was again selected at scrum-half for the RaboDirect Pro12 Dream Team for the 2011/12 season and was also named captain of the side.”

In 2012 Pienaar played in the Heineken Cup Final, scoring 9 points to Leinster. In 2013 he played in the Pro 12 Final, scoring all of Ulster’s 18 points to Leinster.

Between 2004 and 2010 he represented the Sharks in 32 Currie Cup games and 67 Super Rugby matches.

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Comments on RugbyPass

johnz 13 minutes ago

All Blacks talk late-game adjustments after clutch England win

I guess the other option would be to start ALB, he's looked good in the 12 so far when he starts and sets up those outside him. But that would mean putting the vice captain on the bench, which is unlikely. Another option would be to drop Reiko to the bench and play Proctor, though he's gone home so that's not going to happen either.

Both of those players just offer more of the soft distribution skills good centres learn from playing their careers there. Unfortunately that's what's lacking with the current combo.

11 Go to comments

ColinK 13 minutes ago

Are the All Blacks doomed to a 70% flatline?

Whatever let's see if this load of waffle is still valid in 2 years time. ABs will rise we have a lot of new talent coming through. The NPC was the highest standard for years. The game is changing to suit the fast pace we like to play. We get to play the Springboks more, including the franchises, which will make us better! Overall I am optimistic. I will add having watched the England game multiple times we made most of the play. England are an awesome physical team, but you can expect the All Blacks to get better and better at executing the chances. It could easily have been 5 tries to one instead of 3 to 1.

1 Go to comments

johnz 20 minutes ago

All Blacks talk late-game adjustments after clutch England win

Ratima did look rattled, compared to Roigard who looked like a boss when he came on. But that's been Roigard in test rugby so far. Ratima is only really starting because of Roigard's injury, otherwise surely Roigard was the incumbent. So it's not just one outing of the pine, that just points to Roigard being ready to have a start. As good as Ratima has been, Roigard just offers more.

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GL 1 hour ago

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Cody Taylor is a more significant loss than BB, not even close!

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JD 1 hour ago

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CO 1 hour ago

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I agree largely and I rate McKenzie as a wonderful utility at his best but now at twenty nine I wouldn't take him to the next world cup. I've never seen him as a a ten or a starter either at top tier test level. The bench needs a serious rethink with ideally a hybrid halfback/wing or a hybrid halfback/ten or a hybrid ten/centre to release that need for two relatively small guys on the bench.

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CO 1 hour ago

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JWH 1 hour ago

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Good idea, but to move a lock to 6 now with no previous experience save Scott Barrett (who is still our best lock) ahead of the 2nd best equal team in the world may cause more harm than good in terms of confidence, in both caoches and players.

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JWH 1 hour ago

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I never said boring was bad, but it doesn't necessarily go hand in hand with the ABs style. The ABs 10 looks like this: a little magic, good offloads, tactical precision kicking, draw and pass, and a cool head to level it off.

A game manager isn't exactly necessary, as the ABs should all know what they are doing, and the 9 should be directing the forwards. However, considering the youth of our best 9s currently, a more vocal, directive, and logical player like Harry Plummer would make more sense than someone like DMac, who is in his own right a good 10, but tends to sit in wider channels where he can threaten the line more directly, so has less influence on the postioning of the narrower forwards.

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Kia koe 1 hour ago

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Icefarrow 2 hours ago

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Thomas K 2 hours ago

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So you think you’d definitely have scored way more tries if it wasn’t for all the off the ball shots? 🤣🤣