Ken Borland

It was a tough day at the office last weekend for Bulls tighthead prop Marcel van der Merwe in their Currie Cup match against the Free State Cheetahs, with the 30-year-old Springbok being replaced after 34 minutes by World Cup winner Trevor Nyakane.

That brought stability to the scrums, but that set-piece is going to be a key area of Saturday’s massive clash with the Sharks in Durban.

Here are 3 Talking Points over the Sharks versus Bulls scrum battle:

• The Bulls should have first-choice props Trevor Nyakane and Jacques van Rooyen back in the starting line-up – The Bulls stand to gain massive rewards if they can beat the Sharks in Durban, giving them a 12-point lead over the KwaZulu-Natalians and allowing them to be much more flexible in their approach to their festive season games. So coach Jake White is unlikely to pass up the opportunity to reunite the impressive pairing of Nyakane and Van Rooyen, who has served his one-match ban for his red card in Cape Town. They make for a formidable pairing in the scrums.
• What of Marcel van der Merwe? – Van der Merwe is likely to still be on the bench and, with his confidence low, will be targeted as soon as he gets on the field. But White has backed the former Toulon man to come good.

“Marcel is a Springbok and has done well in France, which is the toughest scrumming league in the world, so I am sure he will get it right. Jaco Peyper blew the match very well, but there were still some scrum penalties that came down to interpretation. Marcel has just been out of rugby for a long time with his ankle injury and there’s no doubt that if Trevor Nyakane goes down we will have to find a solution. But it’s no different to if Frans Malherbe had to go down for Western Province. That’s why it’s so important for me to try different combinations,” White said.

• How are the Sharks placed at scrum time? – The Sharks have been boosted by the return of their tighthead, Thomas du Toit, from injury and the World Cup winner played 40 minutes in the impressive win over the Pumas two weeks ago. He will team up with fellow Springbok Ox Nche and both props will be full of confidence and loving their rugby in Durban having signed new two-year contracts that were announced this week.

“The scrums are going to be a very vital part of Saturday’s match because the Bulls have a very good front row and a dominant pack. We’re going to have to outwork them, outscrum and outmaul them. We’ll be under pressure to get that performance right because the Bulls are a quality side with killer instinct. And it has to be an 80-minute performance at 100%,” Du Toit said on Tuesday.

According to coach Jake White, the Bulls team expected a “bollocking” from him at halftime in their Currie Cup match against the Free State Cheetahs at Loftus Versfeld at the weekend, but a return to the basics saw them romp to a 40-13 victory in the second half.

The Bulls started the match well, racing into a 13-3 lead in the first quarter, but they then allowed the Cheetahs to dictate affairs and the visitors had pulled level at 13-13 at the break.

“Just before the game I think I gave them a bit of a scare when I told them a thunderstorm could stop the match so we needed to be in front at halftime. We were up 13-3 but then we started defending and waiting for halftime. I think the guys were a bit scared of the weather, they were a bit naïve and psychologically it’s part of the learning process.

“I think they expected a bollocking at halftime but I just said that we had had no ball but when we did have possession we created pressure in their half. I just told them to go back to what they had practised, to believe in it. And in the second half everything worked, we definitely got it right. It was very pleasing, very good rugby and the bench impact was very good too,” White said after the win.

White said his team continues to learn how to come out on top in different match situations.

“Last week we had to show massive character to win with 14 men against Western Province and this week we had to work really hard in the second half and go hard to the end to get the bonus point. Overcoming these sort of challenges are all building blocks, it goes in the memory bank and it’s another box ticked. There’s that understanding how to get it done and the direction.

“Trevor Nyakane is a World Cup winner, he comes on and all of a sudden we get a scrum penalty and that changes the whole game because the scrums are very important. Duane Vermeulen played well and spoke well to the team, he brings massive composure. Nizaam Carr also brought composure and Morne Steyn was good too, it’s very good to have him back in the system,” White said.

The Bulls produced a telling mix of power in the tight phases and slick attacking play in the second half to run away with their Currie Cup match against the Free State Cheetahs at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday, eventually romping to a 40-13 victory.

The Bulls started like a house on fire, cruising to a 13-3 lead after the first quarter, but the Cheetahs, taking advantage of their impressive scrum and some errors in judgement by the Bulls in their own territory, dominated the rest of the first half and the score was level 13-13 at halftime. And that was with the Free Staters wasting a few opportunities for more points.

But with Trevor Nyakane replacing Marcel van der Merwe at tighthead prop after 34 minutes, the Bulls shored up their scrums, their lineout work was excellent and they contested very well on the Cheetahs ball, they used the rolling maul to good effect and were clinical in forcing turnovers and then capitalising on them.

Having been sucked into playing the way the Cheetahs wanted to in the first half, the Bulls once again showed that when they stick to their game-plan, they are tough to beat.

Openside flank Marco van Staden went to town at the breakdowns, was prominent in the mauls and carried the ball strongly, being rewarded with two tries and the man of the match award.

Other heroes for the Bulls were flyhalf Morne Steyn with his educated boot, which netted him a perfect six-from-six record from two conversions and four penalties, as well as gaining the home side plenty of territory with pinpoint accuracy. He did go through a bit of a distracted phase in the second quarter though, his mistakes allowing the Cheetahs to pin the Bulls in their own half.

The experienced hands like captain Duane Vermeulen, flank Arno Botha and Steyn led from the front in ensuring the Bulls returned to basics, and coach Jake White followed his urgent introduction of Nyakane by bringing on lock Ruan Nortje and scrumhalf Ivan van Zyl early in the second half, both of them making a difference in lifting the energy of the home team.

The Free State Cheetahs certainly extended the Super Rugby Unlocked champions more than the final scoreline suggests, but for all their valiant efforts, they were simply not accurate enough, handling errors and soft penalties costing them dearly.

Scorers

Bulls – Tries: Embrose Papier, Marco van Staden (2), Chris Smith. Conversions: Morne Steyn (2), Smith (2). Penalties: Steyn (4).

Free State Cheetahs – Try: Rynhardt Fortuin. Conversion: Francois Steyn. Penalties: Steyn (2).

The Cheetahs may have been the only team to beat them this season, but as Bulls coach Jake White pointed out, it is a very different Free State team that is coming to Loftus Versfeld for their Currie Cup match on Saturday and they have to endure a bus ride from Bloemfontein to Pretoria before the game.

The Cheetahs edged the Bulls 19-17 on October 16 at Free State Stadium, but they will be missing eight starters, including five forwards and veteran scrumhalf Ruan Pienaar, from that game on Saturday. The Bulls will also feel that they wasted several opportunities to win that first meeting with the Cheetahs and they have also grown considerably as a team since then, with the confidence of winning Super Rugby Unlocked.

“Free State are a different team, they’ve lost a couple of props in Charles Marais and Luan de Bruin, they’ve lost Oupa Mohoje, Walt Steenkamp [playing for the Bulls now], Junior Pokomela and Jasper Wiese. I know what it’s like – you make a couple of changes to your team and you think you’ve lost your rhythm. Plus to come here they have to spend four/five hours on a bus, like we did going there.

“So it’s not ideal for the Cheetahs and if there is rain as forecast then I think they may be vulnerable at forward. But I’m also wary of them because they are the Currie Cup champions, they are very well coached and they play with tempo and pace. They have such good players that they can do the same game-plan even if they’re missing a lot of guys, and they play with a lot of pride,” White said.

The Cheetahs also had their challenge for the Super Rugby Unlocked title made more difficult by Covid-19 and coach Hawies Fourie has made no bones about his team wanting to launch their defence of the Currie Cup crown in style, after they had a bye on the opening weekend.

White is also resting some first-choice players like wing Travis Ismaiel, scrumhalf Ivan van Zyl, lock Ruan Nortje and tighthead Trevor Nyakane, but he has full confidence in the youngsters replacing them. With one eye firmly on a European future, the likes of wing Marco Jansen van Vuren, lock Sintu Manjezi, centre Marnus Potgieter and props Gerhard Steenekamp and Jan-Hendrik Wessels will want to start long and successful careers at Loftus Versfeld.

If White is correct and the Bulls do get the ascendancy up front, then their brilliant loose trio of Vermeulen, Van Staden and Botha can do serious damage and the Bulls have the backline to capitalise.

Teams

Bulls: Kurt-Lee Arendse, David Kriel, Stedman Gans, Cornal Hendricks, Marco Jansen van Vuren, Morné Steyn, Embrose Papier, Duane Vermeulen (c), Arno Botha, Marco van Staden, Walt Steenkamp, Sintu Manjezi, Marcel van der Merwe, Johan Grobbelaar, Gerhard Steenekamp. Replacements – Corniel Els, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Trevor Nyakane, Ruan Nortje, Nizaam Carr, Ivan van Zyl, Chris Smith, Marnus Potgieter. 

Cheetahs: Clayton Blommetjies, Rhyno Smith, Howard Mnisi, Frans Steyn, Rosko Specman, Tian Schoeman, Tian Meyer, Jeandré Rudolph, Victor Sekekete, Andisa Ntsila, Carl Wegner (captain), Ian Groenewald, Khutha Mchunu, Reinach Venter, Boan Venter. Replacements – Jacques du Toit, Cameron Dawson, Erich de Jager, Chris Massyn, George Cronjé, Ruben de Haas, Reinhardt Fortuin, William Small-Smith.

Kickoff: 4.30pm.