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| Ruan Pienaar. Image © sharksrugby.co.za |
“I thought long and hard about it and it was difficult decision leaving The Sharks because I've been here for a few years now and they've become a family to me, but I came to a situation where I needed some stability at a national level,” he explains.
“I'm looking forward to a new start but I look back with great fondness at the coaches I've played under here at The Sharks as well as the great players I've called team-mates.
“This is a very professional union and I'm sad to leave but hopefully I'll be back here in a couple of years.”
After playing exactly 100 games for The Sharks (33 at Absa Currie Cup level and 67 in the Vodacom Super 14), he admits that he leaves with a heavy heart, but who knows what the future might hold?
“I've signed for two years in Ulster and we'll see what happens, if I stay on longer or not. But I'd love to come back and play for The Sharks again and finish my career as an old toppie in Durban.”
He made one appearance in the Absa Currie Cup this season but sustained an injury which regrettably kept him from playing any more games for The Sharks. “Not being able to play a final game due to injury is disappointing for me and means I leave here pretty emotional, but that's the way it works,” he says. “Hopefully there will be more games for me here in the future.”
Ruan made a big statement when he first arrived on the scene in 2005, a youngster barely out of school but an immensely talented player. Against the Brumbies in that year's Super 12, he played a starring role, a play-maker's dream game against lofty opposition. “It is one of the games that really stands out for me, my first run-on game in the Super 12 for The Sharks, just 20 years old and playing against George Gregan.” Another game would be the touchline conversion of a last minute Odwa Ndungane try to seal victory against the Crusaders, the pressure kick snatching victory.
“Other than that, the career highlight for me was definitely the 2008 Absa Currie Cup and the way the guys are playing this season, there is no reason why they can't win it again. I'll be shouting for them from the other side of the world.”
Ruan is not the first player to make the trip overseas, Stefan Terblanche played in Wales for a number of years and looked to be lost to South African rugby, but returned to Durban and now captains a side enjoy a very successful run of form. Ruan agrees that the move is more like a new chapter in his life than the end of a book “If you look at the players who have gone overseas and then returned to play in South Africa, they've come back more mature and someone like Stefan has been playing some of the best rugby of his life; hopefully that's something that will happen to me as well, that I come back wiser and stronger.
“It's exciting time for me, something new and fresh that hopefully will go well.”
In closing, he adds: “I'd like to say thank you to everyone at The Sharks and all the supporters as well, we have the best fans out there. They've supported not only me but the whole team through good and bad times and that's what makes The Sharks so special. Hopefully you haven't seen the last of me and just a big thanks to everyone for the support. That Black and White jersey means an awful lot!”
