Ex-Springbok hooker Schalk Brits reveals brutal Stormers’ rejection before Bulls move

Rugby World Cup-winning Springboks hooker Schalk Brits has revealed the brutal treatment he received from the Stormers in 2019.

The beloved front-rower left Saracens at the end of the 2017/18 season and returned to South Africa, effectively hanging up his boots in doing so.

However, the two-Champions Cup winner was lured out of retirement by Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus to feature in his 2019 World Cup squad.

Brits was then left with finding a team back in South Africa and hoped to link up with his former side, the Stormers, but was rejected and told to “find a new place.”

“Not welcome”

He would then go on to sign with the Stormers’ rivals, the Bulls, and has now revealed how the events unfolded leading him to join the old enemy.

“Things went pear-shaped with the Stormers when coming back from Saracens. So nobody could understand why I ever went to the Bulls because they were our arch-enemy,” Brits told a URC round table.

Brits went on to explain the rejection he received from his former employers as well as the delivery from the Western Province Rugby Football Union administration.

“After moving my family and my kids to South Africa from Saracens, coming out of retirement and all those kinds of things, I was no longer wanted by the Stormers,” he explained.

“I was busy in the Springboks camp, and then I got a text message saying, ‘You are not welcome anymore at the Stormers. Find a new place.'”

Ex-Springbok laments Stormers mistakes in ‘crucial moments’, backs Bulls to ‘build momentum’

Brits had got the message having just moved to Stellenbosch and explained that he didn’t even have furniture in his house yet.

He would go on to thrive with the Bulls in 2019 and was selected in the Springboks’ Rugby World Cup squad, captaining the side in the victory over Namibia before earning his final Test cap against Canada.

Supporting the Bulls

Following the fallout with the Stormers, Brits adds that he is now getting stick from Western Cape locals for supporting the Bulls – a team he would have never dreamed of supporting or playing before until the final year of his career.

Jacques Nienaber claims Leinster are ‘not the finished product yet’

He explained that the Bulls were at the end of his supporting rotation behind the Stormers and Lions but that has all changed.

“It’s quite weird. Loyalty goes loyalty goes both ways,” he said.

“So as long as the South African team is playing against a foreign team then of course I’m supporting the South African team.

“But I never ever thought I would wear a Bulls shirt because of the rivalry between the Stormers and Bulls – I never thought I would ever be playing for the Bulls, and now my three boys have all got Bulls’ shirts on.

“We’re getting a lot of abuse here in Cape Town for being Bulls supporters but loyalty goes both ways.”

READ MORE: Bulls fight off overseas interest for Springbok hopeful as star trio re-sign