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Ken Borland



Jake makes impassioned plea for patience with Goosen 0

Posted on January 09, 2023 by Ken

Coach Jake White has made an impassioned plea for the Springboks and the public to be patient with Johan Goosen as the Bulls flyhalf star makes a tentative return from a serious knee injury.

Goosen has only played two-and-a-half games of rugby since returning from 11 months out due to knee surgery, and he has understandably not exuded the same confidence as he usually has. Goosen will not be playing for the Bulls against Benetton in Treviso on Friday night because he now has a mild concussion.

The 30-year-old has however been called into the Springbok training camp for the end-of-year tour of Europe, and, with the dearth of flyhalves Jacques Nienaber is currently experiencing, White is hoping that the national coaches don’t push him too hard too soon and that the public don’t expect too much too soon from Goosen.

“I feel sorry for Johan,” White said on Thursday, “because of all the expectation that he will just arrive back in the team, wave his wand and be the best player in the URC competition and the alpha and omega of world rugby for the Springboks.

“He was on fire last year, but then he was out for 11 months and I have never coached any player who has been out that long and comes back and just pulls all the strings like before.

“Especially playing at flyhalf, where you have to make all the decisions, you’re basically the general. He does have a burning desire to get back to the Springbok team, but he is a long way off still from where he wants to be.

“But you don’t always get your opportunity at the time you decide, and he is tough enough and driven enough to take this one. I would have liked him to have had more games before his call-up,” White said.

If Goosen encounters no further injury headwinds between now and next year’s World Cup, White expressed the confidence that he would be able to win the prized tournament for South Africa at flyhalf.

“He’s coming into a very good, settled team, and I have no doubt he can win the World Cup for them. But at the moment he is probably five or six games short of his best, and he needs time, games and backing.

“I signed him for the Bulls until 2026 because I have a long-term plan with him, which is why I handle him like I do, I have more time. I’ve been very conservative because it will be very difficult for him to come back from another knee injury.

“I hope the public is as patient and understanding with him. It takes a while to fire at that level, it won’t just happen overnight,” the veteran coach said.

White confirmed that he had had no contact from Nienaber nor national director of rugby Rassie Erasmus over Goosen’s progress. That might just be because they are still sore over White’s criticism of Springbok selection earlier in the year.

Howling wind not in his control, but Jake won’t risk Goosen on Glasgow artificial pitch 0

Posted on December 19, 2022 by Ken

Facing a tough away match at Scotstoun, Bulls coach Jake White does not know whether the wind will howl or not, but one thing that is within his control is team selection and he revealed on Friday that he will not risk flyhalf Johan Goosen against Glasgow Warriors on their artificial pitch.

Goosen, who will probably be on the Springboks’ end-of-year tour, has started just one game at flyhalf since rupturing his knee three games into last season on the artificial pitch in Cardiff. But even though the 30-year-old needs game time and White has also been robbed of backline stars Canan Moodie and Sbu Nkosi due to injury, Goosen will not feature for the Bulls in their United Rugby Championship match against Glasgow Warriors on Saturday night.

“I’m not going to risk Johan on a 4G pitch. They don’t play any Test rugby on those pitches for a reason, it’s because more players get injured on that surface,” White stated on Friday.

“He has just come back from 11 months out after an horrific injury on that sort of pitch. I took the decision myself, I did not ask him. If you look at the history of those 4G pitches, there have been a lot of injuries and I don’t want to take the risk.

“I have confidence in Chris Smith and Morne Steyn, they have done exceptionally well the times we have called on them,” White said.

While there is expected to be a low chance of rain in Glasgow on Saturday night, and just a gentle breeze, White did say he was concerned about the wind strengthening.

“Scotstoun can be very windy, which can be a massive factor in the way we want to play, sometimes it makes it very difficult to play too much rugby,” White said.

“We will have to see how the weather is, it is very influential here, and we might have to kick more. That’s also a skill and creating pressure points is a part of attack too.

“Rain will not be so much of a problem, but a massive amount of wind will be, whether you’re playing against it or with it. It’s a very open stadium and our stadiums at home are closed in.

“If you’re against the wind at the back end of the match and chasing the game, then it becomes very difficult. We also have to learn to use the wind when it is in our favour,” White said.

Added to the change in conditions from back in Pretoria, White pointed out that Glasgow Warriors are always a formidable challenge at home.

“They only lost once at home last year and their one game at home this season they have won convincingly. Coach Franco Smith has lots of experience and he has done well with the Free State Cheetahs and Italy.

“Plus Glasgow have a couple of injured players coming back, which is going to make their forward pack more staunch. Last week was obviously a rebound result for them, and I have no doubt they will want another,” White said.

Bulls: Kurt-Lee Arendse, Cornal Hendricks, Lionel Mapoe, David Kriel, Stedman Gans, Chris Smith, Zak Burger, Elrigh Louw, Marco Van Staden, Marcell Coetzee (capt), Ruan Nortjé, Walt Steenkamp, Francois Klopper, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Gerhard Steenekamp. Bench – Bismarck du Plessis, Simphiwe Matanzima, Mornay Smith, Janko Swanepoel, Reinhardt Ludwig, Embrose Papier, Morné Steyn, Wandisile Simelane.

Big season looms for Hendrikse & for the Lions 0

Posted on October 19, 2022 by Ken

A big season looms for the Lions’ exciting young flyhalf Jordan Hendrikse and for the 21-year-old, the 2022/23 season will be all about consistency.

Hendrikse fractured his ankle in just the second game of last season’s United Rugby Championship, and his return to the side in February coincided with a turnaround in fortunes for the Lions, who surprised many by finishing 12th in the final standings. He played 12 URC games for the Lions and started in 11 of them.

“Our focus as a team is to improve and make the top-10 this time. Of course the ultimate goal is to win the competition, but as players we also want to see development and improvement as individuals, and as a team and union,” Hendrikse told The Citizen.

“Towards the end of the competition we were able to get into the swing of things and adapted very well. We had a four-game winning streak at home and we finished well.

“I definitely enjoyed the competition, it was a very nice experience, my first senior tournament. It was fantastic to experience the atmosphere in all sorts of stadiums, with fans back, and to play against world-class players.

“Injury is always a part of rugby, but it knocked me off-course a bit last season. For me, this coming season is all about being consistent, I just want to get better than the season before in all the things I do.

“I will push my positives to the limit and pick up where I need to in terms of negatives. I’m going to be chasing those one-percenters,” Hendrikse said.

As the current Rugby Championship has shown with an off-form Handre Pollard and an underdone Elton Jantjies both injured, Damian Willemse being inexperienced at No.10 and largely playing inside centre at the Stormers, and Johan Goosen just making his way back from serious injury, South Africa’s pool at flyhalf is not exactly extensive.

But the way Hendrikse was thrown in the deep end by the Lions and certainly did not sink, says much for the former Junior Springbok’s ability and temperament. He has also shown a maturity beyond his years in his all-round game.

“I would definitely say my kicking game is my greatest strength, although it gets hard sometimes in certain conditions and pitches. Defensively, I think I’m strong, I bring physicality at flyhalf.

“I’m a 10 that loves to take the ball to the line, I’m not scared to get my hands dirty. I’ll get in the rucks or beat players with ball-in-hand, I don’t mind.

“But I would like to read the game better. Playing flyhalf is all about being in control, being in charge and having that aura for the team.

“I’d like to bring my positive mindset and calmness under pressure to the team,” the 1.86m tall youngster said.

As they say, you cannot buy experience in the shop and Hendrikse has been forewarned and forearmed when it comes to playing in Europe again in the coming season.

“We had to tour overseas first last season and it was a positive experience for when we go back this winter [northern hemisphere]. They are tough conditions, some places are very windy, others are cold and wet.

“We’re also playing on different fields – 4G pitches – which we are not used to. We’re used to it being dry inland and moist on the coast. So it’s a massive change.

“And we’re up against world-class players who have different styles of playing rugby. Ireland are very attacking, Wales and Italy are more physical.

“And now that we’ll be playing in the EPCR Challenge Cup, we’ll be coming up against French teams, who play more physical and slower rugby.

“We had new coaches come in just a month before leaving for overseas last season, and it takes time and patience before things started clicking. Their teams struggled coming over here too,” Hendrikse pointed out.

The bakery at Ellis Park in Doornfontein is trying to produce a quality product using some fairly raw ingredients and they need to get the texture and taste of their rugby, and those all-important finishes, just right.

There will be a familiar face back in former Springbok fullback Andries Coetzee, and the likes of Ruan Dreyer and Jaco Kriel are still around up front. Lions fans will be hoping the gifted Hendrikse can bring something more exotic as a playmaker, especially since his taste of Sevens rugby with the Blitzboks earlier this year.

“Playing Sevens was definitely an eye-opener and an immense experience,” Hendrikse said. “Just the skill level and small details, it will definitely benefit me in XVs and I would certainly look forward to the opportunity to play Sevens again if it arises.”

On Saturday, Hendrikse was watching his older, by 15 months, brother Jaden playing for the Springboks in Sydney.

The scrumhalf is producing his own deli of special goods down in Durban with the Sharks, but Jordan hopes one day the two brothers from King William’s Town and then Glenwood High School will be able to play together as a halfback pairing.

“I’m immensely proud of Jaden and I love him to bits. We were very competitive growing up, we would keep pushing ourselves. But we watch each other’s games and give each other input.

“We’re just grateful for what we have and definitely, in the future, the plan is to play together. We have that bond, call it instinct, but we see eye-to-eye and we share vision. But it’s all up to God’s will and plan,” Hendrikse Junior said.

An All Blacks side whose skills let them down is not the norm; Mounga admits it was Bok pressure that did it 0

Posted on September 19, 2022 by Ken

An All Blacks side whose skills let them down in a Test match is certainly not the norm, and flyhalf Richie Mounga admitted on Monday that it was Springbok pressure that led to New Zealand’s error-strewn display in a 26-10 defeat at the Mbombela Stadium at the weekend.

South Africa produced an epic defensive display: their rush off the line, their scrambling and physical dominance of the gain-line; and their aerial mastery and an outstanding performance by the pack in the set-pieces were all too much for the All Blacks as the Springboks recorded their biggest winning margin over their greatest rivals since their 17-0 win in Durban in 1928.

“It was obviously very disappointing for us but it confirmed how good this South African team is,” Mounga said at their Sandton hotel on Monday. “They just build so much pressure.

“With their set-piece, coming round the corner and getting penalties, it just becomes an ongoing cycle that is really difficult to get out of. We’ll have to talk about how to counter that.

“It was just a matter of skill errors. You don’t have to be in the right frame of mind to catch the ball, to do your job or do the basics right. But not doing those put is in that cycle.

“It’s called a Test match for a reason because it will test your skill. It was tough to get around them, their high line put us under big pressure. The things we spoke about in order to combat that, we didn’t do well at all,” Mounga, who is likely to start at flyhalf on Saturday at Ellis Park because Beauden Barrett was injured in his collision with Kurt-Lee Arendse, said.

The classy Crusaders star said the All Blacks are trying to shut out all the outside noise, but he understands why their fans are up in arms.

“We know our fans can get frustrated with results and that is very fair, and it’s fair for them to care,” Mounga said. “We know that our performance was not good enough for All Blacks standard.

“But we don’t care what the fans think, I don’t really care what people think if they’re not in our squad. We are so close, but close is not good enough at this level.

“The Springboks’ game-plan is simple – they build numerous consecutive positive plays and that puts you under pressure. It takes just simple execution to change that.

“The most basic skills we couldn’t execute, but if we can fix that then we can start to put them under pressure. At the moment we’re frustrated because we’re making the same errors,” Mounga said.

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    1 John 2:5 – “But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him.”

    James 2:14 – “What good is it if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?”.

    Love without action is useless.

    If you love God unreservedly, you will offer your best to him and be willing to serve him wherever he wishes to use you.

    Love has to manifest itself practically.

    “Love requires uplifting and inspirational deeds.

    “How genuine can your love for God truly be if you are aware of a serious need and do nothing to alleviate it?”- Solly Ozrovech, A Shelter From The Storm



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