SPRINGBOK SCRUMHALF Ruan Pienaar has signed a two-year deal with Ulster, probably beginning next season. Negotiations for his release are ongoing with his club, Natal Sharks. Pienaar made his debut with the Sharks in 2005 before making his first appearance with South Africa in 2006 against New Zealand.

He was also a member of the World Cup winning squad in 2007 and has won 36 Springbok caps.

It is a significant name for Ulster to attract and Pienaar will join two South African colleagues, BJ Botha and Johann Muller, at Ravenhill, while there is doubt over the arrival of All Black number eight Xaviour Rush, who was also expected to be playing in Belfast next season.

The 6ft 2ins Pienaar will replace Isaac Boss, who moves to Leinster, although coach Brian McLaughlin also has the option of playing the 26-year-old at outhalf or fullback.

He last played for the Springboks against Ireland in November 2009 at Croke Park when he came off the bench to replace Morne Steyne at outhalf. Pienaar also kicks with both feet, traits that clearly please Ulster’s rugby operations director and former Ireland outhalf David Humphreys. “Bringing Ruan to Ulster is a massive statement of our ambition to be competing with the top teams in the Magners League and Heineken Cup,” said Humphreys yesterday.

Elsewhere, the International Rugby Board and University of Bath will begin a comprehensive study of the scrum to improve player welfare. The two-year study, “The Biomechanics of the Rugby Scrum”, will be divided into two phases. The first, which gets under way this month, will focus on measuring scrum engagement, forces of elite and non-elite packs under a variety of conditions on an instrumented scrum machine.

The second phase will involve live pack scenarios, with the same groups tested under controlled sequences of engagement.