HENRY IMMELMAN will leave Edinburgh and return to his South African homeland by joining URC rivals Vodacom Bulls at the end of the season. The 27-year-old full-back has played 23 games, scoring six tries and a drop-goal, since arriving at the Scottish capital from Motpellier during the summer of 2021.
“I’ve enjoyed every minute of my time at Edinburgh. It’s a brilliant club with an exceptional group of boys,” Immelman said. “Since day one they welcomed me with open arms and I really started to enjoy my rugby a lot more. Away trips with the Edinburgh boys are probably the one thing I’ll miss the most.
“For me personally, joining the Bulls is a great opportunity. They are another world class club and I’ll be closer to my family as well.
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“Although I’ll be leaving at the end of the season, there’s still a lot of work to do, starting with this Sunday’s massive Heineken Champions Cup match against Saracens at DAM Health Stadium.
“I want to thank the Edinburgh fans for all the support too. I’ve been proud to represent them and this great city during the last two seasons.”
Head coach Mike Blair added: “We’ve absolutely loved working with Henry [Immelman] and wish him the very best as he moves back home to join Vodacom Bulls at the end of the season.
“Henry is a player that always gives 100 percent to the jersey whenever he takes the field and he’s still got a really important role to play as we enter the business end of the campaign.”
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Is this another sign the Kinghorn experiment is over? Signing a fly-half and letting go of a full back.
Kinghorn is the best stand off that Edinburgh have had since Brendan Chainsaw Laney so it seem unlikely.
such a low bar though
Edinburgh seem incapable of spotting and developing a half back from teens to international
Really sad to see Henry go, a massively reassuring presence at the back with a good nose for the try line, but it sounds a good move for him back home. I hope it goes well.
May suggest that Healy seen as No1 stand off with BK back to full back next season?
Very good player but we have a lot of quality back-three depth, free up budget to strengthen elswhere and hopefully allows the promising Harry Patterson to step up more regularly
Disappointing as he was quite superb on Sunday.Not quite sure if Harry Paterson is going to step up to that level (wary that like Blain he’s reached his ceiling already.Hope not.) I suppose with Goosen and VDM signed someone had to go.