WP recruit Shadow
24 Oct 2011
WP have signed Bulls wing Gerhard van den Heever on a two-year contract.
Province and the Bulls officially confirmed the deal on Monday. The 22-year-old’s contract with the Pretoria union ends on 31st October, and he will make the move down to Cape Town in November.
‘We believe Van den Heever to be a quality player with the right attributes to fit into our set-up and vision for the immediate future,’ said WP senior professional coach Rassie Erasmus.
‘Despite his young age he brings solid experience at Super Rugby level. We have a settled base of senior players and a number of emerging young stars and we believe he has the potential to make a valuable contribution at a number of levels.’
Van den Heever made his senior debut in 2009, and played 41 provincial matches (20 tries) and 31 Super Rugby games (12 tries). The deal comes after the Bulls’ signings of WP wing JJ Engelbrecht, centre Johann Sadie and flyhalf Lionel Cronje.
322 Comments
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24 Oct 2011, 21:58 pm
In the 2010 rugby season van den heever was being talked of as a future bok wing as he was playing superb rugby and deserved to be talked about,a year on and he is playing so poorly he can hardly get on the subs bench at loftus.He has put on weight and he is deffinately not as fast as he was and he could`nt tackle his own shadow never mind tackling other players.It looks to me as if he has lost all confidence in his ability and is not interested in playing rugby,maybe the change to the 2nd raters will improve his rugby just like it did to habana hahahahahahaha,they can have him as the bulls have no room in their team for passengers and he is no longer good enough for the bulls,but he is good enough for the 2nd raters,hehehehehehehe.
24 Oct 2011, 23:48 pm
@Tacitus(Deucalion)-108: But all of them are better than Pdivvy
25 Oct 2011, 00:15 am
Lol, best comment of the thread:
“With AC as coach we would have made the semi.”
2nd best coach gets you a 2nd best mentality.
Appoint AC as coach and you better be prepared for the 65% “good times”.
25 Oct 2011, 00:43 am
@wooden spoon(wooden spoon)-303: and prepare for Jake White-style conservatism and loyalty in player selection.
25 Oct 2011, 01:15 am
I wonder if v.d. heever still looks like dirty sanchez wif dat mustache
25 Oct 2011, 07:13 am
Whoever is handeling the players contracts at Province should get fired, I mean swapping JJ Engeldbrecht for Shadow is a **** trade!
25 Oct 2011, 07:52 am
@BreakdownBoy(goodstuff)-306:
have to agree… i’ve been a big jj fan since he emerged from the junior ranks a couple of years ago…
i can’t believe they let him go for less than it cost to acquire van den heever… so not only have we let go a very industrious, speedy and capable wing with good defensive qualities too… for a wing who normally can only perform in space with very limited defence… but i believe the deal lost us money too…
but still… i’m not going to blame or take it out on the players… i wish them both well and i’ll support van den heaver as a wp player and hope that somewhere along the line he gets specialist training and ups his game…
25 Oct 2011, 08:30 am
wow. nice to see one going the other way for a change!
25 Oct 2011, 15:46 pm
From rugby365…
interesting… seems maybe johan sadie and jj’s agents may have been a little too greedy….
Erasmus confirmed that they will continue to bring young stars through the age-group ranks rather than buy seasoned players as they attempt to build a winning brand.
Having been knocked out by the Lions in the Currie Cup semifinal in Johannesburg at the weekend, both Erasmus and head coach Allister Coetzee spoke of the “hurt” and “disappointment” of another failed campaign.
However, Erasmus was adamant that they have the right blend of players in Cape Town to get over that final hurdle and start winning trophies – having lost in the Super Rugby Final and Currie Cup Final last year, while falling at the semifinal stage in both competitions this year.
Speaking of their loss at the weekend Erasmus said in an “under-strength” Currie Cup – during the World Cup years 1999, 2007 and this year – then the teams who lose fewer Boks tend to win … as the Lions [in 1999] and the Cheetahs did in 2007.
He did not feel there was a need to go out an buy a new team just because they were beaten in a semifinal by a motivated and cohesive Lions outfit.
“If you look at the Lions, they are a full-blooded Super 15 team,” Erasmus said, when asked about the dominance the Lions pack had in the set-pieces.
“If you take out your senior scrumhalf, your main line-out loose forward that contests at the back of the line-out, you take out your senior No.5 lock, you take out your No.4 lock, then you will struggle not just against the Lions but any Super Rugby team,” he said of -players like Duane Vermeulen, Andries Bekker, Rynhardt Elstadt and Dewaldt Duvenage.
“When you lose that quality of player it will have a huge impact. I do not have to go buy those guys [players in those positions], they were just injured.
“They will come back once they recover from their injuries,” he explained.
Erasmus also dismissed the notion that the loss of players like Johan Sadie, JJ Engelbrecht and Lionel Cronje (all to the Bulls) constitutes a major crisis.
“We are happy with how [Demetri] Catrakilis has come through the ranks, a Kurt Coleman, Gary van Aswegen … we are happy that we are covered there. We still have the possibility of Peter Grant [who is set to return from Japan in mid-season again in 2012],” he said of the flyhalf position.
“To lose a guy like JJ [Engelbrecht], who came through the system, is very disappointing, but we just could not afford what they [the Bulls] offered him.
“I believe Gerhard [van den Heever] will add another dimension to our team.
“If you lose some players in JJ [Engelbrecht] and Johan Sadie, but keeping Nic Groom, Louis Schreuder, Gary van Aswegen, you get players like Dimitri Catrakilis, bring Rynhardt Elstadt through, bring Eben Etsebeth through, then it is not so bad.
“I can tell you now people would not have been happy if I guaranteed those two what they were asking for. I can’t guarantee a guy he will have the No.13 jersey, that is not fair to Juan de Jongh, Jaque Fourie and Jean de Villiers,” he commented.
Erasmus confirmed that most of the province’s young stars have been signed up for the next few years – players like Steven Kitschoff, Frans Malherbe, Siyabonga Ntubeni, Eben Etsebeth, Quinn Roux, Nizaam Carr, Siya Kolisi, Nic Groom, Nick Koster, Louis Schreuder, Gary van Aswegen, Demetri Catrakilis, Kurt Coleman, Danie Poolman and Tshotsho Mbovane.
He admitted that if success is measured against the number of trophies won, WP have failed.
“If one measures success by trophies, then we were not successful,” he said.
“We had three home semifinals, we played in two finals last year and we were the top South African franchise in Super Rugby this year.
“In two seasons now we just couldn’t get over the last hurdle. I’m taking it on the chin.
“There may have been a refereeing call here and an intercept there and we then don’t win any trophies in a disrupted Currie Cup season, then we don’t have success.
“However, if you look at things like getting the Under-19 players through, getting the Under-21 through, not signing a lot of players from the outside then I think we are really successful.
“When we [Coetzee and Erasmus] arrived here [as coaches in Cape Town] four years ago the team was 11th on the [Super Rugby] standings and didn’t make the Currie Cup semifinals.
“We are building, but it is just that last little hurdle.”
By Jan de Koning
25 Oct 2011, 15:47 pm
but great to see most of our other youngsters are contracted up…
25 Oct 2011, 15:50 pm
@ufo(ufo)-309:
what are habana and fourie?
are they young players or season pros?
25 Oct 2011, 15:52 pm
Coetzee: Life after Sadie, JJ
2011-10-24 22:16
Cape Town – Western Province coach Allister Coetzee says they “tried hard” to keep the services of star duo, JJ Engelbrecht and Johan Sadie, but nevertheless insists they have enough talent to be optimistic about the future.
Province ended another season without a trophy when they lost their Currie Cup semi-final against the Golden Lions in Johannesburg over the weekend. The Capetonians last won the Currie Cup way back in 2001.
“We understand fully the pain of the faithful out there, maybe even more so. The players and management are equally if not more hungry for silverware and there was lot of disappointment and introspection in the camp,” Coetzee told the WP Rugby website.
But Coetzee insists a lot of positives could be taken out of the season, despite the departure of two of their brightest young backline stars in Engelbrecht and Sadie.
“I have not changed my mind on the value that this season will have into the future. The names of JJ and Sadie are bandied about in argument pointing to the failure of WP to develop and retain its youngsters and provide quality depth into the future.
“The reality is however somewhat different. Those players’ contracts came to an end and we tried hard to keep them. That said, there are fantastic structures in place at all levels and a big group of talented youngsters coming through the ranks.
“This season 16 U21 players received significant game time in the senior competition, with the bulk of them having signed with WP for the future,” said Coetzee.
The coach believes the experienced gained in the Currie Cup season will stand the youngsters in good stead in the future, especially with the 2012 Super Rugby season looming.
“It would have been easy to buy old experienced players for the Currie Cup season. We took the opposite route as a stated pre-season goal to continue the development of our youngsters to ensure depth for Super Rugby. Whilst it may be of little immediate consolation, that investment is a great one and will be of enormous value next season and into the future,” said Coetzee.
25 Oct 2011, 15:55 pm
@Gunther(gunther)-311:
rhetorical i’m sure… so just spill what’s on your mind…
25 Oct 2011, 15:59 pm
@ufo(ufo)-313:
what young talent was sitting in front of sadie and jj?
they were stuck behind habana and fourie.
rassie talking out of his bumhole.
and if they were so concerned about homegrown youngsters why did they sign shadow?
25 Oct 2011, 16:11 pm
@Gunther(gunther)-314:
hehehe… i’m just posting what they said… to give a fuller context to what other posters are saying…
i can give you the number of WPRU and you can ask RE and AC themselves…
as i said in another post… the shadow thing didn’t make sense to me either… trading one strong wing for a weaker one… IMO… I’m a big jj fan and believe he’s better than shadow… and perhaps our biggest loss… i’m not too concerned about sadie and cronje…
but yeah… also think it’s weird he says we don’t need to buy any forwards… IMO we obviously need to invest in a couple of props and locks… or a new forward coach to teach those we do have how to do the job…
but maybe this is heyneke being clever and blowing smoke up this youngsters bums and getting them to ask for higher contracts from wp so that they would inevitably leave for greener pastures…?
25 Oct 2011, 16:15 pm
@ufo(ufo)-315:
interesting… seems maybe johan sadie and jj’s agents may have been a little too greedy….
who said that?
if I want to know whats going on I just phone my pal Matty proudfeet.
thanks for the offer though.
25 Oct 2011, 16:21 pm
@Gunther(gunther)-316:
forgot happy matty feet was your bud… maybe you can return the favour and offer me his number…
please ask him what the hell is happening there… from a very loyal life-long but very exasperated wp supporter…
25 Oct 2011, 16:24 pm
so what’s matt’s opinion on all the criticism of his pack…?
25 Oct 2011, 16:24 pm
@ufo(ufo)-317:
sorry I can’t hand out his number to every jocksniffer on the street
25 Oct 2011, 16:29 pm
@Gunther(gunther)-319:
just to square you away with the facts…
i’m not any ol’ jock-sniffer on the street… the gutter’s more apt…
as The Famous Pig SOng says…
‘Twas an evening in October, I’ll confess I wasn’t sober,
I was carting home a load with manly pride,
When my feet began to stutter and I fell into the gutter,
And a pig came up and lay down by my side.
Then I lay there in the gutter and my heart was all a-flutter,
Till a lady, passing by, did chance to say:
“You can tell a man that boozes by the company he chooses,”
Then the pig got up and slowly walked away.
25 Oct 2011, 16:34 pm
@ufo(ufo)-320:
26 Oct 2011, 10:56 am
Eben Etsebeth – now there is a unique talent that WP would do well to nuture. This youngster is destined for great things………definitely Springbok material….
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