Bok No 9 Japan-bound
17 Mar 2010
Fourie du Preez will play for an undisclosed Japanese club after the 2011 World Cup.
Du Preez announced on Wednesday he had signed a contract extension with the Bulls until the end of next year’s Super 15. Earlier this year, he signed on with the Springboks until after the World Cup in New Zealand.
‘These were the best rugby years of my life and I could never have played for another union,’ Du Preez said in a statement. ‘By revealing my plans for the future now, it will give the Bulls sufficient time to plan for the future and possible successors.
‘There are already some excellent players like Francois Hougaard knocking on the door, so it is time to move on. It remains a massive honor to be part of the structures started and maintained by world class coaches such as Heyneke Meyer and Frans Ludeke.
‘The leadership of Victor Matfield and the bond between the team members is also something I will always treasure. There is still time for me to add value and it is something I look forward to.’
Du Preez will only be 29 by the time he starts his Japanese stint for an unknown time-frame, but said he was entirely focused on the Bulls and Boks’ goals.
‘There is the chance to play in another World Cup, but also the knowledge that I will enjoy the experience,’ he said. ‘Last season was the most enjoyable I have had in the Bok jersey and think Peter de Villiers deserves a lot of credit for that.
‘I feel we have the experience and core group in the team to make a serious run at the Webb Ellis trophy again.’
57 Comments
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17 Mar 2010, 17:58 pm
Hope he likes biltong with noodles!!
17 Mar 2010, 17:58 pm
Japanese Dragon!
17 Mar 2010, 18:06 pm
always best to get out when you on top of the world…..great Bok this….
17 Mar 2010, 18:06 pm
Afer WC 2011 VM and Bakkies will be gone aswell.
17 Mar 2010, 18:06 pm
@Spinnekop: yes….hence Juandre Kruger,Flip vd merwe and W Steenkamp.
17 Mar 2010, 18:07 pm
6 big shoes to fill though. Jano Vermaak a Bull in 2012.
17 Mar 2010, 18:11 pm
@Spinnekop:
Why, to be an understudy for Hougaard ?
17 Mar 2010, 18:24 pm
This was to be expected. Kudu’s for making his plans clear in advance to allow for succession planning.
He does not need the money that’s for sure. I think he doesn’t even need his paycheque at the bulls as is his financial state even before he started proffesionally.
17 Mar 2010, 18:26 pm
@onerb:
Really, what do you know that we don’t
17 Mar 2010, 18:39 pm
Never seen a
before 
17 Mar 2010, 18:46 pm
17 Mar 2010, 18:46 pm
He he he
Thanks scar…
17 Mar 2010, 18:57 pm
Best player in the world in 2009
17 Mar 2010, 18:57 pm
@Big Hit:
Agree 100% !!!
17 Mar 2010, 19:06 pm
What a gentleman!
17 Mar 2010, 19:22 pm
17 Mar 2010, 19:23 pm
The wheel is starting to turn…no matter how much Tac and all bulls suddenly find springboks all over in the bulls team….the wheel is turning…slowly but surely!!!
17 Mar 2010, 19:27 pm
@scar: He just might miss the biltong and mushroom soup at Pacha’s though!
17 Mar 2010, 19:49 pm
(?)
17 Mar 2010, 19:49 pm
Damnit i tried
17 Mar 2010, 20:10 pm
Happy St Pat’s.
17 Mar 2010, 20:11 pm
Fourie du Preez is a class act.
This announcement and his plans are just like his game – precise, professional, organized.
Well done bud, best Springbok scrumhalf ever.
17 Mar 2010, 20:20 pm
Bizarre. The most talented scrumhalf in the world playing for an irrelevant club in a league that nobody cares about. Even with the money why go and play there where is the job satisfaction? What it the challenge? Help lift the J-league cup.
Even 6 months there is a large proportion of a playing career building sandcastles on a stilbaai beach when everone else is hitting north beach in June at the beach festival
17 Mar 2010, 20:33 pm
@ballwatcher: Have you ever left South Africa to live and work?
Perhaps the man wants to see the world, eat in one of the culinary capitals of the universe and broaden his mind.
Perhaps he feels that life is more than about rugby, but about unique experiences that grow you as a person.
Not that Stilbaai is without charm, but that the Ginza has it’s own unique charms.
And evryone who knows anything about FdP knows that he does not, and need not, do things for money.
Parochialism is just an emotional parasite.
17 Mar 2010, 20:39 pm
Then take a sabatical grow a beard and roam the forbidden city, I don’t care, but why waste your time playing rugby in japan. My point is about the rugby. Ply your trade in the best leagues or don’t bother…
17 Mar 2010, 20:40 pm
Good Player, Ware Blou Bull.
Ek kan nie eers smiley’s maak nie, and you ouens makes question marks and uitroep tekens.
17 Mar 2010, 20:44 pm
@ballwatcher: 5. Of course you are welcome to your own opinion.
17 Mar 2010, 20:45 pm
25
17 Mar 2010, 20:45 pm
@SodaJoe:
Maybe.
Or maybe he just wants to meet hot asian chicks!
17 Mar 2010, 21:09 pm
Ok, here goes.
I want 4 hospitality suite tickets for 15 May Bulls vs Stormers.
I can pay for them or exchange a weekend ( fiday and Saturday night)any time until September 2010 at our 4 star beachfront guesthouse in Wilderness. I am willing to offer 4pax (2 double rooms) including breakfast in exchange for this. Value R 4,800
June 23-26 we are fully booked with Japanese.
Let me know.
17 Mar 2010, 22:56 pm
Ballwatcher, sodajoe is being diplomatic but i will be less so. After 2 world cups, numerous currie cups and super14 titles as well as a b&i lions tour under his belt, he has achieved more than most rugby players ever will. Why would he want to continue playing top level rugby where the demands on the body are inhumane. Wake up man. He wil be in his 30′s. I wonder when the last time was that you did anything at that level… Leave the man be. He has earned it. John Smit should take a leaf out of Fourie’s book, even though i highly respect the man and regard him as the greatest captain
17 Mar 2010, 22:58 pm
@ballwatcher:
I believe he is interested in coaching after his playing days(Full article states this) and he feel he will be better off starting at a lower level and work himself up.
Almost like an american football legend coaching in south africa( a team not likely to be good) where there is no ego’s to please and to see if you can actually achieve something out of nothing.
17 Mar 2010, 22:59 pm
Partizan
17 Mar 2010, 23:05 pm
To answer blouste, and this is only hearsay! Apparently he inherited millions a couple of years back. Mining history in the family. Like I said, heard it on the news many years back.
17 Mar 2010, 23:08 pm
@Xkreni-WP:
Try Gumtree boet. Nobody here(serious rugga supporters) will change hospitality tickets for anything. Or maybe try government classifieds, these fat cats don’t really watch rugby.
17 Mar 2010, 23:33 pm
This is very upsetting. I guess once you win 2 world cups there isn’t much else to do.
17 Mar 2010, 23:50 pm
@Kobus Kitty: didn’t know fdp had 2 wc medals…
17 Mar 2010, 23:56 pm
@Transformation: 36. Signpost that comment for Black Panther now.
17 Mar 2010, 23:58 pm
cmon guys, Kobus is so sure hes going to get his second next year, remind you of another countrues supporters perhaps? not I, for nothing is a given, especially in sport
18 Mar 2010, 00:02 am
@poppa69: 39. You should know its true Poppa. Surely it will be a France – Bok Final, unless there is some AB jiggery pokery in the pool stage
18 Mar 2010, 00:05 am
@Heavens Game: of course, why would the home team, who rarely ever get beaten at home, be any threat to the true super power of world rugby (france
, for they have it over you and always seem to disrupt us in WCs)..
cant see anyone but France lifting the thing, Boks will choke once they get to spend some time in Hicksville…
18 Mar 2010, 00:08 am
@poppa69:
Figured out the smileys but prefer words: fcuken lol
18 Mar 2010, 00:32 am
Firstly great player and respect for the manner in how he did this. Lotsa time for the bulls and sa to plan ahead. Already the bulls seem to have scrumhalved covered and by that time hougaard would have played 2 seasons of super rugby.
Now another case of a senior bok saying positive things about the coach , seems old simon is continiously exposed for his gutter journalism re the ‘open secrets’ comments he made a while back. Sadly he has yet to come clean and admit he was wrong and only said what he said becos he was simply looking for hits.
Good luck fdp we will miss u but till then I hope u help us win the world cup but not the super 14 lol
18 Mar 2010, 00:56 am
@Transformation:
By the time he goes to Japan he’ll have 2. Did my comment go over your head? Come on, even Poppa got it.
18 Mar 2010, 01:10 am
18 Mar 2010, 07:30 am
I am sure he will be in the picture in 2015 RWC. I think he isint going to a NH club because he wants to get away from the limelight and all that.
18 Mar 2010, 07:31 am
Well that is a massive signing for a Japanese club. Possibly the biggest?
18 Mar 2010, 07:46 am
please please take Earl Rose with … he anyway looks like a japanese with his “rice eyes”
18 Mar 2010, 07:49 am
In other news Mapoe might be on his way to the Bulls due to a contract dispute.
18 Mar 2010, 07:55 am
@Kobus Kitty: #44 did you see the emoticon after may comment? You assume that he’ll have a medal to collect which in itself borders on arrogance…did you read Poppa’s reposte to you or did it fly over your head?
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