Ken Borland

Bulls coach Jake White has been able to run the rule over his young assets in the last two games and he declared himself well-pleased after they secured an impressive 48-31 win over the Pumas in Nelspruit on Tuesday night.

Only eight members of the squad that won the Currie Cup final have been involved in the preparation series matches against Eastern Province and now the Pumas, as White has chosen largely youthful line-ups comprising the fringe talent at Loftus Versfeld.

“What I’ve enjoyed the most is that this team has an average age of 22. A guy like Jan-Hendrik Wessels [prop] is still U20, Reinhardt Ludwig [lock] was still in matric last year at Affies. So I’m chuffed we have some nice depth going forward and this will be a good team if we can keep them together.

“There was some over-agerness, with tighthead props and scrumhalves taking tap-and-goes and then knocking on, but that’s the thing with youthfulness and having a young side – they can make mistakes,” White said afer the match.

The Buls led 27-17 at halftime and stretched that lead to 41-17 on the hour mark, before conceding two late tries, but White said he still valued the defensive effort in the second half.

“I’m sure neither defence coach will be that happy with the first half. We gave them 17 points in the first 21 minutes, but then they did not score again until the 70^th minute, even though I’m sure [coach] Jimmy Stonehouse gave them a rev at halftime and it was always going to be difficult for us in te second half. Our defence was much stronger in the scond half,” White said.

The Bulls used the brute force of their powerful forward drives in the Nelspruit heat to beat the Pumas 48-31 in their training match at the Mbombela Stadium on Tuesday night.

The Bulls outscored the Pumas by seven tries to four and four of the visitors’ tries came from the rolling maul, including one in the first minute of the match through hooker Joe van Zyl just to set the tone.

A heated first quarter saw the Pumas stand their ground, however, as the scores were locked at 14-14 after 20 minutes. But the ill-discipline of the Pumas and the silly mistakes they made, often in their own territory, allowed the Bulls to seize a foothold in the game as they led 27-17 at halftime.

Pumas coach Jimmy Stonehouse did complain about what he felt was some rough justice from referee Rasta Rasivhenge and the Pumas had conceded 19 penalties to just the six of the Bulls on the hour mark. That helped the Bulls storm into a 41-17 lead.

The penalty count did become more even in the final quarter as the Pumas fought back with two tries, but the Bulls had the final say with yet another try from the lineout drive.

Pumas captain Pieter Jansen van Vuren listed ill-discipline and basic mistakes as being among the major reasons they lost the game in his post-match interview.

Apart from the Bulls pack producing an impressively cohesive display and the visitors being generally sharp and accurate, the accomplished play of flyhalf Chis Smith, the explosive form of Stravino Jacobs on the wing, the tidy efforts of scrumhalves Embrose Papier and Bernard van der Linde, the powerful carries of the forwards, a strong performance at centre by Marnus Potgieter and an impressive showing at eighthman by WJ Steenkamp will be among the positives for coach Jake White.

Ruan Nortje is far too polite to ever be accused of frustration, but there is no doubt being passed over for Craven Week created a great hunger in the lock which can still be seen today in his rip-roaring displays for the Bulls.

The Wonderboom High School product only made the Bulls team for the U18 Academy Week in 2016, but he did secure a place in the provincial academy at Tuks. He caught the eye of current Bulls assistant coach Nollis Marais and, from then on he has been destined for greater things, representing the SA U20s and making his Bulls debut in 2018.

Nortje’s rampaging form over the last year saw him win the SuperRugby Unlocked Forward of the Year award at the Bulls’ weekend awards ceremony, but the 22-year-old could just as easily have won the Unsung Hero title if there had been such a category.

“Every time I go on the field it’s just important for me to give my best for the team and play my heart out. It’s a big opportunity for me to play for the Bulls, it was always a big dream of mine and I never gave up on that dream. I was over the moon in matric when I got the opportunity to come here and express what I love doing. I’m here for a reason and I believe the Lord has put me here.

“So I just try to give my all, it’s just my instinct to be as hard and physical as possible. I’ve always looked up to Francois Mostert, I’ve based my game on him and I love the way he plays. He’s not the biggest lock but he always plays hard with a lot of heart and passion. It’s a massive dream of mine now to follow him and play at international level,” Nortje said at the Bulls celebration at Loftus Versfeld.

And there is certainly no affectation – he is just one of the most likeable young players around – when Nortje expresses his gratitude for the mentors who have helped him on his journey.

“I had two awesome coaches at high school in coach Braam Pretorius and Mnr Van Wyk, they had all the confidence in me that I would be good enough at the top level. Also Lood de Jager and RG Snyman, I’ve learnt a lot from them. Lood coached us in the Currie Cup and he had a big impact on me, being one of the best locks in the world. And it’s been a privilege to play with Duane Vermeulen, who has so much rugby wisdom.

“And it’s been easy to play under Jake White because there’s a system in place and it means a lot to me that he had confidence in me and the other younger players, which you don’t often see. And Russell Winter has been the most under-the-radar coach but he deserves the most credit, he means so much to me in terms of lineout play. Russell is very underrated but he’s one of the best forwards coaches,” Nortje said.

Sharks coach Sean Everitt has warned that South Africa’s top rugby players could be facing 12 months of non-stop action which is why the current preparation series has seen all four of the bigger franchises fielding second-string line-ups.

The Sharks play the Free State Cheetahs in Bloemfontein on Wednesday and Everitt, for the second week running, has left more than 60% of the 23-man squad that featured in the Currie Cup final at the end of January on the sidelines. The Bulls, Western Province and Lions have similarly rested their leading stars.

“There’s not going to be too much time for a pre-season and we could be playing rugby for the next 12 months, so that means we won’t be able to top up the players in terms of strength and conditioning. So the Currie Cup guys can’t just keep on playing, we need them to try and develop more resilient bodies to prevent injury later on. We also need to grow our depth and prepare for the Rainbow Cup.

“Our motivation in these matches is slightly different to that of the Cheetahs, so we’ve split our squad into two groups of 33 and 12. The 12 are doing strength and conditioning work and at the end of the Free State game, those 12 will come back into the playing squad and another 12 will go into the conditioning camp. So when we play the Lions away from home it will be a vastly different starting line-up,” Everitt eplained.

Everitt said the plan in the opening two weeks of the preparation series was to give all the fringe players an equal opportunity to impress.

“We’re trying to balance selection because I would like everyone to have had equal game time after the first two matches and then we will rotate the bigger group. The preparation series is an opportunity to see where we might need to add some depth. We have explored some options already to bolster the squad, but we have nothing definite to announce to the public.

“Siya Kolisi has come along very well and went straight into team training. He’s found it a bit difficult with the severe heat on the coast at the moment, but it’s been tough on all the players. He’s also provided good leadership off the field, as you’d expect of the Springbok captain. At the moment we are building something really special here,” Everitt said.