Photo Credit: Speedshots.co.za
Since the appointment of head coach Jake White at the Vodacom Bulls a lot of "new" faces has arrived while several "stars" like Manie Libbok, Burger Odendaal, Dylan Sage, Johnny Kotze, Rosco Specman, Divan Rossouw and Warrick Gelant was released from their contracts or their contracts was not renewed.
During a recent media conference, Jake White tried to explain how difficult it is to build a "cup-winning squad" with the limitations SARU has placed on the number of players and salary of the squad. Currently, a franchise may only contract 45 players with a maximum salary of R 60 million for the squad to be spent.
It is known that the Bulls are doing their utmost to get these restrictions changed as it is impossible to compete in the Pro16 and Currie Cup with only 45 senior players. However, the majority of the other franchises do not support this idea. It will be interesting to see what happens as new "investors" become involved at the other franchises if their opinions will change in order to be able to compete with the Bulls.
Currently, according to Jake White, the Bulls have contracted 42 players. Ivan van Zyl has announced that he signed with Saracens and will leave mid-2021. The rumours regarding Francois Hougaard and Johan Goosen signing with the Vodacom Bulls are developing into facts, which leaves Jake with only two players left to sign. If more rumours are to be believed Damian Willemse is also said to be joining the Vodacom Bulls late 2021, which leaves Jake with one more "joker" to play.
Thereafter, I expect several other ingenious methods will be invented to "stretch" the 45 player limit by the top franchises. If loopholes exist it WILL be identified and exploited.