Ken Borland

Schalk Burger was usually at the vanguard when it came to setting a high intensity for the Springboks, but the legendary loose forward does not see that same intensity yet in the current crop of players as they return from Lockdown, which is why he does not believe the national team are ready to compete in the Rugby Championship.

The South African-based players have only had a maximum of three games each – the SuperFan Saturday warm-up, the dour Springbok Showdown and just the opening round of Super Rugby Unlocked. But a decision is due to be made on Friday as to whether they travel to Australia for the Rugby Championship, which is due to start on November 7, with the Springboks taking on Argentina in Brisbane.

“At the moment the Boks are not ready. I just haven’t seen the intensity to match the intensity we saw in the All Blacks/Australia game on the weekend. For us to perform away from home, I think the guys are a few games short. Rassie Erasmus said he wanted them to have six games before playing Test rugby, but if it is true that the November 7 match has already been postponed then they will have more time.

“But we have magnificent players and we play differently to the All Blacks and Wallabies, especially in the way we defend. It was so easy for Australia to get width with just one or two passes, but we rush up and make that so difficult. And we pride ourselves on our scrums and lineouts, so we would have put Australia under so much more pressure,” Burger said in a Laureus Sport For Good Foundation webinar on Wednesday night.

Burger also added that he was concerned about the injury suffered on a French field by Handre Pollard and the lack of certainty over who will back up Elton Jantjies at flyhalf, as well as the injuries at lock.

“Lock and flyhalf are real concerns. Lood de Jager, Handre Pollard and RG Snyman have all suffered major injuries and they are nine-to-10-month injuries, so one wonders if they will be ready for the British Lions tour next year, which is a red-letter event for South Africa. I’m waiting for a few young locks to really stand up, there’s massive scope for that now.

“At flyhalf, Elton is the most natural choice to take over from Handre, but we need someone else too. The question is whether that is Damian Willemse or Curwin Bosch. Kicking for poles will be very important and that’s probably Damian’s most inconsistent area. Or do they use Frans Steyn as cover for flyhalf? That’s all got to unfold over the next year and there are still lots of questions to be answered,” Burger said.

“But the biggest worry is that the guys have not played much rugby. Their intensity is not sharp enough and it looks like they are having difficulty handling the fact that there are no crowds and they need to adapt to that.”

Embrose Papier and Jade Stighling have been brought into the Bulls team to counter the pace of the Free State Cheetahs in Friday night’s Super Rugby Unlocked match in Bloemfontein, with Duane Vermeulen returning and Clinton Swart called up for his debut in an effort to negate the battering ram play of Francois Steyn at inside centre.

Johan Grobbelaar, starting at hooker, is the other player brought into the starting line-up which was announced on Wednesday afternoon. Coach Jake White has also shifted Cornal Hendricks from inside to outside centre and shuffled his bench with U21 star Joe van Zyl called up to cover hooker, Gerhard Steenekamp replacing injured loosehead prop Lizo Gqoboka, and Nizaam Carr coming in as the replacement loose forward instead of Elrigh Louw.

Here’s why the changes fit in specifically with the Cheetahs in mind:

Jade Stighling – White called winger Stighling “one of the quickest players in the squad” and his selection in the number 11 jersey, with the lanky and elusive David Kriel moving to right wing and Travis Ismaiel left out, is aimed to counter the Cheetahs getting too much space and time out wide.

“The Cheetahs make quite a few line-breaks and Jade has massive pace, he’s one of the quickest players in the squad. But they also concede quite a lot of line-breaks, so if we can make some then we will have the pace to get up in support and create a few nice opportunities,” White said.

Embrose Papier – While White has committed himself to rotating his two Springbok scrumhalves, he admitted Papier’s game is better suited to the pace and expansiveness of the Cheetahs.

“I always said Embrose would get game time, it’s not like he’s our No.2 scrumhalf, and he’s also one of our quickest players, which comes back to those line-breaks the Cheetahs both make and concede. I’m looking forward to seeing how he combines with that backline and Free State rely on lots of pace, so we need to see if we can counter that,” White said.

Duane Vermeulen – The looming figure of the Springbok eighthman and colossus is likely to spend plenty of time in the inside centre channel to make sure Francois Steyn’s forays end before the gain-line. Captain Vermeulen, for his part, said the swelling on his knee has gone down and he is looking forward to ensuring that the Bulls execute their plans better than they did last weekend against Griquas.

Clinton Swart – The 1.84m, 105kg Swart played under White at Toyota Verblitz and may not be a flashy centre in the mould of Cornal Hendricks, but he is very direct and ideally suited to countering the sort of game Steyn plays. He also has a very handy boot and there’s little doubt one of White’s major tactics against the Cheetahs will be to pin them in their own half and make them run from deep and he now has three accomplished kickers in Morne Steyn, Gio Aplon and Swart to achieve this.

“I know what Frans Steyn can offer and if you give him lots of gain-line then the Cheetahs will play around him, so his presence was a big influence in our selection. Clinton came from Free State so he knows them well. We’re not going to be able to get away with playing Hendricks and Gans in midfield every week and I would also like to see Cornal at outside centre – that might also be a stroke of genius and he has been running well with Clinton,” White said.

Nizaam Carr – While Elrigh Louw enjoyed himself with hall-in-hand when he came off the bench against Griquas, that role can now be fulfilled by Vermeulen. Against a team as pacy as the Cheetahs, the Bulls are going to need a more openside type flank and Carr fits the bill perfectly to come off the bench and lift the tempo.

Bulls team: Gio Aplon, David Kriel, Cornal Hendricks, Clinton Swart, Jade Stighling, Morné Steyn, Embrose Papier, Duane Vermeulen (C), Arno Botha, Marco van Staden, Ruan Nortje, Jason Jenkins, Trevor Nyakane, Johan Grobbelaar, Jacques van Rooyen. Replacements – Joe van Zyl, Gerhard Steenekamp, Mornay Smith, Sintu Manjezi, Nizaam Carr, Ivan van Zyl, Chris Smith, Stedman Gans.

The Bulls’ hamfisted efforts at the breakdown in their opening Super Rugby Unlocked match against Griquas seem to have at least partly been caused by them wondering what the referee had smoked before the game, such was the difference in interpretation between last weekend’s match and their friendly a fortnight ago against the Sharks.

Against the Sharks, with Rasta Rasivhenge on the whistle, the Bulls enjoyed a free-flowing, pacy game because they were allowed quick ball. But against Griquas they were assaulted at the breakdowns by a pack of forwards who went hard at the ball and were able to slow the Bulls down while also effecting 17 turnovers.

Bulls coach Jake White was at pains to point out that he did not have a bone to pick with the referee last weekend, but that the difference in interpretations at the breakdown is a meaty issue for coaches to contend with.

“The side carrying the ball was definitely not rewarded as much, at one stage we had 65% possession and we were still being penalised. We’ve got to try and find out if the referees want us to have the ball or they don’t; if they’re going to continually blow the tackler for not releasing or rolling away and the defenders for offsides, then it will be better to have the ball.

“But Marius van der Westhuizen blew completely differently to the first game we played and I don’t mean to say he was right or wrong. But Griquas came hard at the breakdown and I’m going to have to sit down with Nollis Marais, our breakdown specialist, and see how we can get quick ball. We were probably a bit seduced by the first game against the Sharks, because of how easily we got the ball then it made us think we didn’t need to go in there and fetch it against Griquas,” White said.

Bulls openside flank Marco van Staden is one of the toughest players to shift once he has his hands on the pig’s bladder and he admitted to confusion all round when it came to knowing what to expect from referees.

“The new interpretations are a bit difficult to understand, for the referees also. But the good thing is it seems they are going to reward turnovers if you get both hands under the ball quickly; there’s going to be no more cleaning out from the side and the tacklers have to roll away. But that definitely favours the defending side and suits me,” Van Staden said.

The Springbok who narrowly missed out on the World Cup squad last year actually made more of an impression with his ball-carries: bulging thighs pumping and with a look of tremendous determination on his face, Van Staden used his 1.84m, 106kg frame to great effect, often pulverising the defensive line. His 13 carries were the joint most by any player on the opening weekend, along with EW Viljoen of the Lions and Jasper Wiese of the Cheetahs.

Lady Luck ultimately gave her favour to the home side though at Loftus Versfeld last weekend, but the breakdown probably tops the list of things the Bulls have to improve on if there is not to be a Bull-braai enjoyed by the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein on Friday night.

“I think the Cheetahs wlll definitely come with an expansive game, they will go wide and wide, and it will be a quick game. They want quick ball and we’ve got to slow it down. We have a plan,” Van Staden said.

Lock Jason Jenkins admitted on Monday that the Bulls pack were slow to lay the sort of forward platform that would have made the match against Griquas in Pretoria at the weekend a much easier outing, with the home side eventually having to toil to just edge the spoils 30-23.

The Bulls backline looked dangerous in the first half, but the failure to ‘build an innings’ in the forward exchanges meant Griquas always had enough defenders on their feet to deal with the threat and they also made life very difficult for the hosts in the breakdowns.

“It wasn’t a great performance and we were lucky to get the win, although it’s better to be able to learn from a win than to have to learn from a defeat. Credit to Griquas, who made it really hard for us, it’s not that we underestimated them, we knew they were going to come hard, the Bulls lost to them in the Currie Cup last year and we knew they would be confident.

“Our physicality was up there but coach Jake [Whiite] said at halftime that we had to be more physical and direct, we had to hit their one-off runners back, win that battle first before we could start going wide. We were a bit slow to sort that out first and our attacking breakdown in the first half was very poor because the cleaners were watching the carriers and coming in too late,” Jenkins said on Monday.

While Jenkins has always been well-suited to the mundane hard graft of a number four lock, he wants to develop into a more potent ball-carrier and there were signs of that against Griquas, especially when he burst through the line to set up fellow lock Ruan Nortje for a try.

Jenkins is on loan with the Bulls until November 8, when he has to return to Toyota Verblitz, White’s former club in Japan. The 24-year-old said playing in the Japanese Top League has helped him develop more gas, which he will need to put to good use on Friday night as the Bulls visit a Free State Cheetahs side that loves to play fast-paced, expansive rugby. Jenkins – and the rest of the Bulls tight five – will need to show mobility in order to preserve the defensive line and defuse the Cheetahs attack.

“Rugby in Japan is not as bad as it was five or six years ago, they have really picked up their structures and it’s now a world-class competition. It’s not as physical, but it’s quicker and I’ve had to adapt to moving around the park a lot more.

“The Cheetahs also like to run the ball and expose teams out wide, but we will take them on up front, try and force them to play infield more, force them to play into our hands a bit more. We need to put them under pressure up front, like we should have done early on against Griquas,” Jenkins said.