Cape Town - PUMA has signed a contract with Springbok and Bulls scrumhalf Francois Hougaard that will run from June 1 until after the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

The sponsorship deal between the Bulls No 9 and the Sportlifestyle brand will see Hougaard wearing PUMA performance and lifestyle products.

The deal comes hot on the heels of Hougaard’s new contract with the Bulls, another team that PUMA has added to their books in recent times as full technical kit sponsor.

Hougaard will join a formidable group of South African PUMA rugby players including Schalk Burger, Gio Aplon, Andries Bekker, Willem Alberts, Tendai ‘Beast’ Mtawarira and Ryan Kankowski. He will wear the new statement boot, the PUMA evoSPEED I FG, from June 1.

The evoSPEED boot is one of the lightest boots in the market and is designed to help players achieve top speeds on the field. Inspired by the World’s Fastest Man Usain Bolt, the evoSPEED collection features product offerings across all PUMA sport categories.

A host of other PUMA assets will be wearing the brand new evoSPEED product across cricket, soccer and rugby as a symbolic show of support for Usain Bolt in the upcoming Olympics. These include cricketers AB de Villiers and the Morkel brothers, Bafana Bafana captain Steven Pienaar, and Springboks Gio Aplon and Schalk Burger.