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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

PB 5 minutes ago

Let's be real about these All Blacks

Guess you aren’t a SA’can!

Maybe a disgruntled expat!

50 Go to comments

RedWarrior 8 minutes ago

Jake White: Ireland, Australia and Wales all have the same problem

"They start with Ireland away, and then they go over to Paris to play France."

England are playing France in Twickenham in the 2025 6N.

14 Go to comments

RedWarrior 16 minutes ago

Andy Farrell faces up to concerning Irish 'trends' ahead of Fiji

There is nothing particularly significant about Ireland in this regard compared to other Tier 1 nations. To look at 'strategy' for illegal play its best to see what teams push boundaries with new laws. SA have milked two tries at ruck block downs. The strategy is to charge the first few before the ball is out at about 4 seconds but pull out and put up hands in reigned apology. The referees usually allow the scum half to clear without awarding a penalty in this scenario. The problem with that being that the scrumhalf is now taking over 5 seconds through no fault of his own. Having achieved a few slow balls > 5s , the SA forward can now pick a scrum to charge dead on 5s. Now if the scrum half waits, he will concede a penalty, as we saw against Scotland. With the new rule in place, any early charge should result in an immediate penalty.

SA also got an offside block against England which was pivotal again after a couple of 'apologetic' offside aborted charges forcing England to clear slowly.

2 Go to comments

RedWarrior 32 minutes ago

Ex-All Black accuses Ireland's Jack Crowley of 'disgusting' act in Argentina win

Yep, you're not the sharpest tool in the shed are you?

45 Go to comments

Mark 43 minutes ago

Fin Baxter wades into debate over the England losing streak

Totally agree, and with the Greenwood comment you have hit the nail on the head, England have never managed to replace Greenwood.

And although it's a simple analogy if you look at today's England side, how many of them would make a combined world xv?.

As you allude to, they are I'm afraid mediocre.

3 Go to comments

Lisa Decker 46 minutes ago

Ex-All Black accuses Ireland's Jack Crowley of 'disgusting' act in Argentina win

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45 Go to comments

Werner 49 minutes ago

Let's be real about these All Blacks

I dare say it's an "everyone against the ABs" scrapbook. Only time I've seen him give half a compliment is when he talks about other teams beating the Springboks. Even in this article he puts the Argentina win in NZ down to the ABs being bad rather than the Argentines playing well, which they have been doing all year round.

50 Go to comments

AA 59 minutes ago

Fin Baxter wades into debate over the England losing streak

Agreed. Borthwick will have to write a new excuse book soon .

I have looked at the two world cup final teams from 2003 and 2020.

2003 team scored 187 tries between them in 389 caps

2020 team scored 113 tries between them in 473 caps. As you can see a huge disparity in scoring rate. Only Johnny May with 36 tries in 78 caps scored a higher amount of tries. Elliot Daly comes close but the rest are frankly very poor.

Farrell and Ford scored a pathetic 20 tries between them in a combined 210 caps.

There again , the 2003 team did have Wilko and Greenwood etc whereas 2020 team had Ford and Farrell .

So much people saying that Fords strength is of bringing others into the game .

Really. The figures totally disprove that notion .

It has been mentioned elsewhere that we have accepted mediocrity far too often and the figures would indicate that players are or have been picked far too often without performing .

3 Go to comments

Alex 1 hour ago

Let's be real about these All Blacks

Not disputing that NZ are ahead of Eng. Also not saying Eng are unlucky (though clearly the tone of the article is not that the ABs were unlucky but that they 'should have' won). Your team are looking great and are on the up. I just felt that Pundits have argued Eng 'should have' won the first test against the ABs, when it's more nuanced than that, and very fine margins determine results that Eng didn't get right. Same applies, therefore, to NZ and other nations. Ben Smith though doesn't seem to see it that way. To be clear: I'm not saying I agree with the 'should haves', but more that I take issue with the phrasing.

Good to see your respect for other nations is so strong! Proper rugby fan you are!!!

50 Go to comments

RedWarrior 1 hour ago

Did Rassie Erasmus miss a trick with his latest South Africa squad?

GB is England, Scotland, Wales. They are the 3 constituent countries in Great Britain. Ergo playing only those three countries is a tour of GB. The difference between GB and the UK is Northern Ireland. It's not a huge deal to be accurate and call places by their correct name. But please refrain from your idiotic attempts to BS that GB=UK. It doesn't.

52 Go to comments

RedWarrior 1 hour ago

'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'