The Bulls have confirmed the signing of World Rugby Player of the Year Malcolm Marx, with the Springboks hooker set to join the Pretoria club on a long-term contract from July 2027.
The move is the latest major addition to a squad being assembled under head coach Johan Ackermann, as the Bulls target a team capable of challenging for major honours.
Marx, 32, is a two-time Rugby World Cup winner, having helped South Africa lift the trophy in 2019 and 2023. He has won 94 Test caps and scored 29 tries for the Springboks, the highest total by a forward in the history of the national team.
“I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to join such a historic and respected club as the Bulls next season,” said Marx.
“It is an exciting new chapter for me, and I look forward to reconnecting and working alongside former teammates and coaches. I am eager to contribute wherever I can, bring and play my part in helping the Bulls achieve their goals and ambitions. I look forward to the journey ahead and to being part of this special club.”
Marx has spent the past six years playing franchise rugby in Japan. His move to the Bulls will reunite him with Ackermann, who previously coached him at the Lions.
Together, they were part of a Lions side that reached three successive Super Rugby finals in 2016, 2017 and 2018.
Ackermann said he was looking forward to working with Marx again and recalled first meeting him when he was 16.
“I’m humbled that a player of his quality sees our union as the place he wants to play his rugby. I first met him with his mom as a 16-year-old at KES. I just saw this broad-shouldered, big man, but obviously the proof was in the pudding,” he said.
“He’s one of the hardest workers I coached, someone with great integrity too. He excelled and has stayed humble, always putting his team first. I have so much respect for him, grateful that his rugby journey has come full circle with me. I am most proud of the man and the person and the husband and son he is for his family.”
The Bulls recently welcomed Springbok tourist Luan Giliomee to Pretoria and also secured the services of Rugby World Cup winner Kwagga Smith on a three-year contract.
Edgar Rathbone, chief executive of the Blue Bulls Company, said the announcement marked an important moment for the club after reports of the signing had emerged in recent weeks.
“Malcolm is one of the best players in the world, and he has been a hero to many South Africans. He is a winner, a proud South African and a man whose standards will lift everyone around him,” Rathbone said.
“This shows our ambition clearly: we are building a squad capable of winning trophies, and Malcolm’s signing says it loud and clear.”
