Cape Town – The Blue Bulls rugby union have announced that Bok eighth man, Pierre Spies will be their captain for the upcoming season.

Spies takes over from Victor Matfield, who has since retired from rugby after the Rugby World Cup.

Centre, Wynand Olivier will assist Spies as his deputy, a role which he has already fulfilled during this season’s Currie Cup.

In a statement released on the Blue Bulls website, Spies felt humbled to have the honour bestowed upon him, though it was not a big surprise to him.

"It was not such a big surprise though, as I had it in the back of my mind that I could be asked to lead the team when Victor retired. I was privileged in my career at the Bulls and the Springboks to play with great captains and I could certainly learn a lot from them."

Spies, who made his Super Rugby debut in 2005 and has played for the Bulls 72 times, said he will try and lead from the front.

"I would like to try and do that. I believe a captain should lead from the front and I hope that will be something that I can do successfully. There are huge challenges ahead, but we are all looking forward to that. This group is younger than in previous years, but we have the same goals as those squads and that is to win the competition."

Incidentally, both Spies en Olivier attended Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool (Affies) and represented the Blue Bulls at schools level first before going on to represent the union at junior and senior level.

Olivier seeks to dismiss the notion that the Bulls have become a spent force following the departure of a golden generation of players.

"I like that responsibility. Anyone who wants to write off the Bulls because we lost players, do so at their own peril. I think we have a squad that can with the competition again.

"There are new faces, so there will be a challenge to make sure all share the same vision, but I see no problems in that.

"We have a great management team and coaching staff and they will get everyone to pull in the same direction.”