Roux not lost to Stormers entirely
Stormers coach Allister Coetzee is confident that Quinn Roux will return from Leinster next year a much better player for the experience.
As reported on this website earlier on Wednesday, Roux will be leaving after the current Super Rugby season, but will not be lost to Western Province altogether.
The physically imposing young lock has signed a one-year contract with the European champions and Coetzee is excited about the learning opportunities he will get in Dublin before returning to the Cape in May next year.
He said: "In Quinn's case he sees it as an opportunity to go to Leinster to improve as a player and a young lock. Obviously, there are four other locks who he has got to play behind at this point in time.
"He has played very well and I am actually OK with this because he is coming back to us in a year's time, he has only signed a year's contract.
"By the end of May next year we should have a Quinn Roux who has played a lot of rugby with experienced locks which will be good for his development.
"Quinn is not parting ways with the Stormers, it is part of this young lock's development and I am really glad for him, it is a great opportunity," Coetzee explained.
One player who Coetzee is not likely to see very soon is Roux's Vodacom Cup teammate Danie Poolman, who has signed a three-year contract with Irish club Connacht.
"Danie Poolman has also been released. He sees it as a great opportunity because he will be signing a longer term thing maybe to become an Irish international," said Coetzee.
The Stormers boss said that the sheer depth of talent at the union makes it difficult to give every promising player the opportunities they would like, and added that the franchise is also not in a position to compete with the buying power of European clubs.
"This place [Western Province] will always produce talented young players and we can't keep all the players.
"If a player goes for business reasons then we are battling against the Pound and the Euro, so there will always be player movement," he said.
Coetzee said that there have been no further developments around Junior Bok flyhalf Handré Pollard who is still in Matric at Paarl Gimnasium and is set to decide between the Stormers and the Bulls after leading the Western Province Craven Week team next week.
"The last communication I had with his dad was that they would make a decision after Craven Week, so I will speak to him then," he said.
Coetzee explained that the amount of talent coming through the systems at Western Province every year means that some quality will inevitably be lost to other unions, and added that he is satisfied with how they have managed the situation in recent times.
"You will miss one or two, but the players that we have lost like Conrad Hoffmann and Johann Sadie and a few other players never really came back to bite us.
"I don't want to sit in a situation where you have got so many young players on your books and you don't know what to do with these guys and there is not really enough time for their development here," he said.
By Michael de Vries
