Ackermann on Mostert's Gloucester debut
REACTION: Gloucester coach Johan Ackermann brushed aside the ongoing tug-of-war with the Golden Lions over the services of Springbok lock Franco Mostert.
The South Africa international, Mostert, made his debut for his Gloucester as a second-half replacement in their 36-16 Premiership win over Worcester Warriors at Kingsholm at the weekend.
World Rugby cleared the way for Mostert’s debut, in the 72nd minute of the match, when they ruled in the favour of the Premiership club in their long-standing dispute with Mostert’s previous franchise, the Lions.
The Lions withheld his registration, as they contested the signing, but World Rugby intervened and he was given international clearance to play for the Cherry and Whites at the weekend.
However, according to weekend media reports the Lions are not about the throw in the towel and are set to continue the fight for Mostert.
According to the Sunday weekly, Rapport, newspaper, the Lions and the South African Rugby Union will approach World Rugby to reconsider its decision – after it found that the 28-year-old had not broken any rules in his discussions with Gloucester.
Gloucester Chief Executive Stephen Vaughan told GloucestershireLive the Premiership club had done “nothing wrong” when they signed the Bok lock.
“We just wanted him to work and get paid, it wasn’t much more complicated than that,” Vaughan said.
“We had to go through the correct channels and protocols as the franchise [the Lions] were holding onto his registration.
“I think they call it restraint of trade when you try to stop someone earning a living and he was no longer an employee of their organisation.
“We worked closely with the RFU, who have been fantastic, to make sure we’ve got the player signed to work for us.
“His contract finished with the Lions prior to it starting with us so it was pretty straight forward,” he told GloucestershireLive.
Good win in the end against a tough Worcester side. Congrats to @FrancoMostert and #JacoVisagie on home debuts. Also how good is @thorlo! pic.twitter.com/vPQppct7gw
— Ed Slater (@edslater) December 1, 2018
Ackermann said he was pleased Mostert could finally make his debut for the Premiership outfit, despite the second row forward giving away two penalties in his first minute on the field.
“It is always difficult when you come on so late and you want to make a difference,” Ackermann said in his post-match reaction.
“He said to me afterwards: ‘They are quite strict’, because he would have got away with that in Super Rugby.
“He will find his feet. He was chucked in at the deep end, with only a few training sessions.
“We wanted to give him a bit of a rest as well, not playing [him] too long.
Greetings 👋🏼 pic.twitter.com/yPubKdSBnj
— Gloucester Rugby (@gloucesterrugby) November 30, 2018
Glos Rep – Franco Mostert ON, Ed Slater OFF. [36-16] #GLOvWOR
— Gloucester Rugby (@gloucesterrugby) December 1, 2018
“Now that he has the experience [of playing] in front of this [Gloucester] crowd, hopefully, he won’t be as nervous going forward.”
Another new arrival from South Africa also made an impact seconds after coming on for his home Gloucester debut.
That was Jaco Visagie, the hooker on-loan from the Bulls.
His first job was to take a line-out and then get on the back of the rolling maul to drive over and finish off the try.
Sources: GloucestershireLive & Rapport
🎥 Alan Solomons gives his reaction to today’s result at Kingsholm… pic.twitter.com/nwpLJnHXua
— Worcester Warriors ⚔️ (@WorcsWarriors) December 1, 2018
