Former Stormers hooker Schalk Brits these days considers himself a vollende Bull.
This after being told back in 2019 that he was apparently no longer welcome at his former team the Stormers.
In a United Rugby Championship Round Table interview this week, Brits pak’ed uit on how it came to be that he joined up with the Bulls for the 2019 Super Rugby season.
The World Cup winner and two-time European Champions Cup title holder with English club Saracens says: “Nobody could ever understand why I went to the Bulls, they were our arch-enemy. I got told [via text message], after moving my family back to South Africa from Saracens, coming out of retirement and all those kinds of things, and busy with a Springbok camp and no furniture in our house in Stellenbosch, ‘you are not welcome anymore at the Stormers… find a new place’.”
But apparently it seems that the Stormers – then operating under the name Western Province Professional Rugby – did not have enough pitte to contract the likes of Brits and another former Stormer star Duane Vermeulen.
Zelt Marais, former Western Province Rugby Football Union President, who claims he is still the man in charge, tells the Daily Voice a lack of funds at the professional arm might be the main reason why Brits could not be contracted.
Marais explains: “The Chairman and Chief Operating Officer of WPPR at the time was Dr Johann Van Der Merwe and Paul Zacks respectively.
“The President of WPRFU (Marais) was not involved in any negotiations with players and was a matter for the Director of Rugby, Gert Smal, [Stormers] coach Robbie Fleck and the CEO.
“At the time WPPR had accumulated losses that originated in 2017 and 2018, and WPRFU had to bail out WPPR with about R60m in addition to the R40m funded to WPPR via Remgro at the time of the liquidation of WP Rugby Pty Ltd…”
Although Rugby at the Stormers is now being run by the Red Disa consortium, the lovable Brits is still bitter and says he and his family are now staunch Bulls supporters.
Brits says: “Loyalty goes both ways. I never ever thought I would play for the Bulls and currently my three boys have all got Bulls shirts on.”
He does, however, still skree Stormers when they play a foreign opponent.