Ken Borland

Bulls coach Jake White has never been averse to stirring up a bit of controversy and, although he does not have much of a social media presence he knows very well how to stoke up conversation before a big game. And in South African rugby, matches don’t get much bigger than the Currie Cup final, which the Bulls will host against the Sharks on Saturday.

But this week White, who admitted that he still feels the pressure of crunch matches, has been strangely restrained and even went as far as to suggest the Sharks might be favourites because half of their team have won the Currie Cup previously. Knowing how canny Jake is though, this is almost certainly some sort of mind game and he will ensure his Bulls team are the most inhospitable of hosts on Saturday.

That’s the thing about  the 57-year-old White, who has been a top-level coach now for almost 20 years, dating back to when he led the Junior Springboks to the U21 World Cup crown in 2002 – there is always a plan and it usually comes off. From utterly transforming a Springbok team that was in disarray in 2004 into World Cup champions in 2007, winning a rare Tri-Nations title along the way, he then took the Brumbies to the 2013 SuperRugby final and the Sharks to the 2014 semifinals, before leading Montpellier to the European Challenge Cup in 2016.

“I’ve been in enough finals and playoffs to know how it works and you can never take away the pressure. So I still feel the pressure and myself and the players will make mistakes, but a final brings the best out of certain players and they take their opportunities. There’s a real buzz in the squad, it’s so nice to be in the changeroom, you can just feel it.

“This is a very proud and driven team, they have a great hunger to win the Currie Cup and I just need to channel that the right way. I felt what it was like to win in the 2007 World Cup and I would like to taste that again, although it doesn’t get easier. But hopefully I can transfer my experience and the lessons I have learnt to the team. I’ll be trying to keep them calm and they must just enjoy the moment,” White said.

Sharks coach Sean Everitt (51) would have had a lot of interaction with White in 2014 because he was one of the Sharks’ assistant coaches, but the relationship between the head coach, his assistants and the players reportedly became strained leading to the World Cup winner spending just a year in Durban.

White was accused of being dictatorial but he has certainly softened since then, and is well-versed in global modern rugby trends.

Everitt’s coaching stock has certainly grown hugely since then as well, and Brad MacLeod-Henderson, who coached with him at the Sharks, winning the Currie Cup in 2013, described him as being a mentor who placed more responsibility on the players.

“Sean is more collaborative, he won’t pitch up and say ‘this is what we are going to do’. He will help the players make the right decisions, depending on the cues the opposition give them. As a former backline player, he’s more creative and he’s in favour of ball-in-hand rugby and having a go. But he wants the players to have a look first; if it’s on, have a go, if not, go to the air. It’s about space and getting the balance right.

“Sean is a great guy and all the players respond well to him being a good person. They have a lot of respect for him, he’s well-liked by the players and they will go the extra mile for him. He has created a good environment  and that’s why the players want to be in Durban because they’re happy on the field,” MacLeod-Henderson told Saturday Citizen on Friday.

The Bulls are going into the Currie Cup final with just one change to their team for the semi-final – Johan Grobbelaar starting at hooker and Schalk Erasmus going to the bench – which means disappointment for Sevens Springbok Stedman Gans.

The outside centre has been one of the stars of the season for the Bulls, but was a late withdrawal from last weekend’s semifinal against the Lions with a hamstring strain. Coach Jake White said on Thursday that Gans has not recovered enough for him to be willing to gamble on selecting him.

“I don’t think Stedman is ready, it would be a helluva risk to play him, especially since there’s often extra time in finals. So he’s not available, it was a tough call for him and I’m sure he’s very disappointed. But I’ve been very happy with Marco Jansen van Vuren as well, he’s defended well, especially against the Lions, who will really stretch and test you. So he has massive confidence at the moment,” White explained.

White chose to deflect a question over what the Bulls had learnt from their loss to the Sharks in their previous meeting, a 32-29 defeat in Durban last month, by saying if one learns more from defeats than from victory, then the Bulls are the “masters of learning” given their failure to win the Currie Cup since 2009.

“We should be the masters of learning then. The Bulls are tired of losing, tired of not playing in finals, so it’s a massive game on Saturday. We’re playing at home, so it’s a great opportunity and there is a tremendous hunger in the side. It’s an incredible achievement to host the final and now the cherry on top would be to win. Remembering that guys like Jean de Villiers and Schalk Burger, two of the best players I ever coached, never won the Currie Cup,” White said.

The 2007 World Cup winning coach acknowledged that winning the Currie Cup would be a highlight of his career, while adding that an international star like Duane Vermeulen had never lifted the famous old trophy as a captain.

“It would mean a lot to me to win because I have great respect for the Currie Cup. And you can see the players’ desire, which is giving them energy and an unbelievable drive to get it right on Saturday. Sometimes it’s great not to have won it before. It’s a great honour to win the Currie Cup, you think about the great players who have drunk out of the trophy …

“It’s a long time since the Bulls last won the Currie Cup and then you look at someone like Duane, who has won the Currie Cup twice and a World Cup, but he’s never won as captain. And the players can see what that means to him, so they are lifting their game. When your captain is a legend like that and he wants it so badly, you’re going to do whatever you have to do,” White said.

Bulls team – David Kriel, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Marco Jansen van Vuren, Cornal Hendricks, Stravino Jacobs, Morné Steyn, Ivan van Zyl, Duane Vermeulen (captain), Elrigh Louw, Marco van Staden, Ruan Nortje, Sintu Manjezi, Trevor Nyakane, Johan Grobbelaar, Lizo Gqoboka. Bench: Schalk Erasmus, Jacques van Rooyen, Mornay Smith, Jan Uys, Arno Botha, Embrose Papier, Chris Smith, Marnus Potgieter.

Twenty-year-old scrumhalf Jaden Hendrikse has been pushed front and centre by the Sharks as he will be starting in the Currie Cup final against the Bulls in Pretoria on Saturday in the only change to the semi-final line-up announced by coach Sean Everitt on Thursday.

It has been an age since South Africa had such riches at scrumhalf, with World Cup star Faf de Klerk and Cobus Reinach overseas, Ivan van Zyl being consistently slick for the Bulls and Herschel Jantjies (WP) and Embrose Papier (Bulls) finding some form as well. And then there are the young talents at the Sharks: Sanele Nohamba has just turned 22 and is an exciting prospect even though he will be on the bench for the final; while Hendrikse is rated by Everitt as the next big thing.

“Jaden was actually supposed to start last weekend but he had a stomach ailment for most of the week so we thought it best to put him on the bench. He’s a good decision-maker at the base, a good defender and he even gets turnovers at the breakdown. But the main thing with him is his game-management, he conducts the play really well.

“Jaden is a tremendous talent, he’s a former nominee for World Junior Player of the Year for a reason and he has big game experience at U20 level. Then we will look at Sanele to bring tempo. He has a different skill set, he knows our plays really well and has come along nicely in terms of maturity. The last 20 minutes is going to be one of the most important parts of the final and Sanele can close out the game well,” Everitt said on Thursday.

One of the great successes of the Sharks’ game-plan at Newlands last weekend was the way they demolished the Western Province maul, which was one of the home side’s key building blocks of success this season. There are a few more Bulls buildings that the Sharks will need to demolish because their opposition has a greater range of attacking weapons than last week’s rivals, but being able to negate the Bulls’ lineout drive will stand the KwaZulu-Natalians in good stead.

“We haven’t had to train so many mauls this week because we had so many at the weekend! But we expect the Bulls to maul, they have their banker lineout jumpers and Russell Winter [forwards coach] has done a good job. But if you go back to when we beat them here in Durban, we stopped them at the drive, the pack stood up to them really well and there’s no reason they can’t do it again.

“JJ van der Mescht has a massive role to play in that, he has a lot of physicality and defends well, he’s brilliant at stopping mauls and he loves doing it. The more he plays the better he seems to get. Everyone says how badly Western Province played, but no-one gives the Sharks any credit for how many mauls we defended. The plan was to not give them any lineouts, we gave them 13 but we stopped them all,” Everitt pointed out.

Sharks team – Aphelele Fassi, Sbu Nkosi, Lukhanyo Am (c), Marius Louw, Yaw Penxe, Curwin Bosch, Jaden Hendrikse, Sikhumbuzo Notshe, Henco Venter, Dylan Richardson, Ruben van Heerden, JJ van der Mescht, Thomas du Toit, Fezokuhle Mbatha, Ox Nche. Bench: Dan Jooste, Mzamo Majola, Michael Kumbirai, Hyron Andrews, Thembelani Bholi, Sanele Nohamba, Jeremy Ward, Manie Libbok

Sharks star Sbu Nkosi is a top-class wing, a current Springbok and World Cup winner. He will be coming up against two young rising stars in Bulls wings Kurt-Lee Arendse and Stravino Jacobs.

“They are both very good players or Jake White would not have selected them. We all have a lot to learn but I guess I’m a bit further down the road in my journey so there are probably a couple things more that I have picked up. But they are both very exciting players and they will bring energy. I will bring my best game as if I’m playing against the best in the world,” is what Nkosi said about Arendse and Jacobs.

So what will Nkosi be up against in the Currie Cup final on Saturday? Former Springbok captain Jean de Villiers runs the rule over Jacobs and Arendse.

Stravino Jacobs

“I’m extremely proud of how he has really stepped up to another level, especially since he comes from my alma mater Paarl Gim. So I’ve watched him for a while, he was already a beast at school and Jake White is always good at giving those sort of talents opportunity. He’s a big, physical guy but he doesn’t lack pace either,” De Villiers told The Citizen on Wednesday.

Kurt-Lee Arendse

“He also comes from Paarl even though he did not take the traditional route to the top. But he has all the skills and I have been so impressed by his all-round performance. He’s smaller than Stravino but he doesn’t shy away from defence and he has a good eye for every opportunity. It’s very exciting to see the way he’s playing and the influence of Sevens on XVs, so credit to Springbok Sevens coach Neil Powell and his work and guys like Cornal Hendricks and Stedman Gans who are also in the Bulls team.

“As a combination, both of the Bulls wings have speed and they’re a bit like a Julian Savea and Cheslin Kolbe combo – those are the two extremes when it comes to wings, but it’s complete package,” De Villiers said.

Nkosi, who is not lacking in power, will be marking Jacobs so that could be a titanic clash out near the tramlines on Saturday.