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Ruan Pienaar signs for the Toyota Cheetahs

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.

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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.”

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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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J
JW 2 hours ago
All Black star Richie Mo'unga stuck in stalemate in Japan

Richie is a great passer too, don't get me wrong. But if I'm picking Mo'unga's direct attack were he threatened the desences in 23' by having the ball in both hands, or Dmac's 24' backline where theyre super deep and he has to run sideways doing skip passes, I choose the 23 backline.


As a first five, Dmac has no threat on the carry, he's too small to bust through, that's why you don't see him try it like Mo'unga does. Dmac can still try to carry (when he should just give it to someone else) as his bailout option when under pressure, but thankfully with the forward dominance it's not so much an occurrence/issue.


Somehow Spew, but we haven't seen that because of the Dmac issue I outlined. It's generally the 10 that doubles around. I don't trust Jordies instincts at doing it either, even in his role of laying it back I don't think he's the one. So while I agree it's a powerful attacking play I don't think it's an option for the All Blacks either. Rieko just hasn't been able to catch the ball, it's pretty much his only problem. You can't see that changing though. I'd imagine they just can that play as something theyre not capable of too rather than change people in and out.


I perhaps go for something more simple, like runners from deep coming into the line at different angles. No so much about width like they were last year, just simple inside or out passes to Clarke/Jordan/Telea straitening the line. We want to see something different happen this year because if its the same I think we'll all be calling for heads again.

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