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Johannesburg - Bulls captain Pierre Spies will board a plane leaving South Africa with his teammates today, but still has no idea of exactly how his future will pan out.
According to the supersport.com website, Spies will lead the Bulls into a crucial four-week stint that will make or break their Super Rugby ambitions, but chances that he will be staying at the franchise past this year’s World Cup look increasingly slimmer by the day.
It is supersport.com’s information that the Bulls haven’t even made an offer to Spies to return to play Super Rugby next season, and while the Bulls continue to profess that negotiations are ongoing, is it strange that they haven’t even commenced negotiations with an offer of some sorts to their captain.
The norm in negotiations by unions is to try and sign up their players under contract within a year of the contract expiring, thereby staving off the competition from rival unions for the player’s signature, but in Spies’ case this hasn’t been done at all.
It is a strange way of handling things, especially considering Spies has spent his entire career at the Bulls and is their captain.
Normally if a player hasn’t received an offer from his union five months before the end of his contract, it is a firm indication that the union doesn’t need his services any longer.
But the Bulls deny this, and say they are continually negotiating with Spies.
Spies confirmed to supersport.com that he had not finalised anything with the Bulls and still has no home for Super Rugby next season, but said he would probably have more clarity when he returned from the tour in a month’s time.
The Bulls rubbished reports a few weeks ago that there was to be another “mass exodus” of players, this time to Japan and said that the players in question – of which Spies was one – would be returning for Super Rugby.
Spies currently has an offer on the table from Japan and two from clubs in France, but is likely to prefer the Japanese option as it would allow him to play Super Rugby next season as well.
And while it may well be that he is waiting to see if he is in the Springbok mix when the national contracts are handed out it is still a strange concept that the Bulls have not even discussed figures with Spies.
Bulls High Performance manager Xander Janse van Rensburg said in response that they are constant contact with Spies and his agent.
“We are in constant discussions about Pierre’s future with his agent,” Van Rensburg told supersport.com, “But there are a number of factors that play a role with his situation and that is why it is sensitive at the moment.”
Meanwhile Bok Francois Hougaard is in a similar situation and still hasn’t been contracted by the union for 2016 onwards.
While Hougaard has an offer on the table from a Japanese club, he has also been courted by Exeter Chiefs and Leceister Tigers, and is considering offers from both.
