Ken Borland

Bulls coach Jake White on Thursday said he is confident his decision to bring utility back Gio Aplon and tighthead prop Marcel van der Merwe back down south for SuperRugby will bear fruit for the new-look Pretoria franchise.

White has first-hand knowledge of the qualities of the two Springboks, having seen both shine in French rugby when he was in charge at Montpellier up until 2017. The World Cup winning coach then took Aplon, capped 17 times by South Africa, with him from Grenoble to Toyota Verblitz when he first moved to Japan for the 2017/18 season.

Van der Merwe, who played seven Tests in 2014-15, joined Toulon from the Bulls in mid-2016 and became a regular for the powerful outfit. The 29-year-old can only have benefited from the emphasis on set-piece play in the Northern Hemisphere.

“Gio is a very talented rugby player and I’m surprised he did not play more Test rugby for South Africa. People may question his age because he’s 37-years-old but I’ve worked with him for the last three years in Japan and he is still in very good shape and is as professional as anyone in looking after himself. Plus given the nature of rugby in Japan, those three years should allow him to play for longer.

“So that’s why I’ve brought him over for one more year of top rugby and it’s not as if we have to pay him something over the top either. I believe he can have the same effect as Schalk Brits and look at the impact he made at the Bulls last year. Gio has that sort of personality which I just feel can be very important to the group I’m getting together,” White told The Citizen on Thursday.

Van der Merwe may be coming from the trenches of French rugby but SuperRugby is arguably the toughest competition in the game, with a big attrition rate among the forwards and White is ensuring he has two top-class tighthead props now.

“The old saying that the most important position in a rugby team is tighthead prop and the second most important position is the reserve tighthead is true. So we now have a very good Springbok in Trevor Nyakane there and another Springbok in Marcel so we are in a comfortable position. Marcel was a massive force at Toulon and won all sorts of championships with them.

“At 29 years old he is still reasonably young as a frontrower and he has played all over the world, so he has had to adapt his game and he is older and wiser now, with a massive amount of experience. But the most important factor for me is that he has an unbelievable, burning desire to play for South Africa again, he is very driven to get back into the Springboks,” White said.

Gio Aplon may be only 1.75 metres tall and weigh just 78kg but he is a feisty individual who is able to produce moments of magic on the rugby field, often enough to convince a famous ‘sizeist’ like Jake White to sign him for the Bulls.

While White was Springbok coach between 2004 and 2007 he made no secret of his belief that a good big ʼun was always better than a good little ʼun, but it seems Aplon first convinced the resolute coach of his merits while playing for Grenoble in France between 2014 and 2017, when White was coaching Montpellier.

When The Cistuses and White split ways not entirely amicably, the coach went to mentor Verblitz in Japan, and signed Aplon early on in his stint.

And now that White has been appointed director of rugby at the Bulls, he has once again brought Aplon with him. The Pretoria-based franchise announced on Wednesday that Aplon will join the team from June or as soon as he is able to travel back to South Africa, saying in their statement that he “epitomised the phrase ‘size doesn’t matter’ with his explosive speed and nimble feet allowing him to score tries from almost anywhere on the field, taking on the biggest and the best the game had to offer”.

Aplon has played 17 Tests for the Springboks, scoring five tries. But his last appearance for South Africa was back in late 2012, although he was part of Rassie Erasmus’s training group in 2018, without making a match-day squad.

The Bulls have developed something of a penchant for bringing veteran players to Loftus Versfeld, from Victor Matfield to Adriaan Strauss, Duane Vermeulen and Schalk Brits, and Aplon continues the trend as he is 37 years old.

Aplon spoke of his respect for the Bulls and what the brand has achieved in the statement, while he has previously spoken of how much he enjoys playing under White.

“The Springboks won the 2007 World Cup because he is such a fantastic coach. System-wise he is exceptional, he has implemented a good programme. He isn’t just there to fill up the post as head coach, he is there with the purpose of making Verblitz better and, as players, we feed off that. Jake is a serial winner and to be coached by him was one of the reasons I went to Japan,” Aplon told SA Rugby Mag.

Cheslin Kolbe, who is even smaller at 1.71 metres and 74kg, has made a massive impact with the Springboks and White will be hoping Aplon, although 11 years older, will prove of similar benefit to the Bulls while also serving as a mentor.

Rugby in the age of Covid-19 will be a non-spectator sport but at least there are some signs that action will return to the fields and our television screens soon.

New Zealand, thanks to their excellent leadership and general good behaviour of their citizens, are once again being the world-leaders and the great news came out of the Land of the Long White Cloud this week that prime minister Jacinda Ardern is set to announce an easing of their Lockdown to Level 2 on Monday, which allows for the resumption of competitive sport.

Rugby – and more particularly SuperRugby – has been in quarantine since mid-March, but now it looks likely that New Zealand’s franchises will return to action perhaps as early as the first weekend in June. NZ Rugby chief executive Mark Robinson said the players would need three to four weeks of training to be ready for contact and to put on the sort of spectacle rugby fans are so desperate to have back in their lives.

The competition will be called SuperRugby Aotearoa and will involve New Zealand’s five franchises – the Blues, Chiefs, Hurricanes, Crusaders and Highlanders. They will play each other home and away over 10 weeks, with two matches every weekend. But all matches will be played in closed stadiums.

South African rugby fans will have to be more patient, however. While New Zealand this week reported no new Covid-19 cases, South Africa is still living with a pandemic that is still causing more cases (437 announced on Friday) and deaths each day. We’re just going to have to accept New Zealand once again having a headstart on us.

While it is obviously disappointing that spectators won’t be able to watch live at the venues, the first priority has to be to get rugby on the go again, even if it is just on television. To that end, WorldRugby this week put out a statement from their medical experts that all rugby should be played behind closed doors. Even then, they say a minimum of 167 people (58 players, eight stadium operations staff, 41 people working for television, 16 medical personnel, 10 administration staff and four security guards) would be needed at a stadium to put on a high-level game of rugby, so that can’t happen until government allows gatherings of 200 people.

There are also conditions attached to the return to training, which initially will have to be non-contact with masks, and moving from pairs to small groups to full squads.

It looks likely that the two Tests the Springboks were meant to host against Scotland in July will now be played in the summer, but the Rugby Championship is still scheduled to be played in August/September. If our domestic franchises only return to action in July (which is probably the best-case scenario), then the All Blacks will have a massive conditioning advantage over the world champions. But the cash-strapped sport’s need to return to international action is so urgent that those imbalances just have to be accepted.

An additional problem in this country once rugby returns behind closed doors is access to the games. Not being able to go to the stadium is one thing, but most rugby fans cannot afford pay-TV, especially in ever-tighter economic times. Should at least some matches not be broadcast on free-to-air television?

One of the major axes I have to grind with SA Rugby is how they have allowed potentially their most valuable brand after the Springboks, the Currie Cup, to wither into near insignificance. Hopefully when our four SuperRugby franchises plus the Free State Cheetahs and Southern Kings, play their replacement tournament later this year it will spark the revival of the greatest domestic competition.

One only has to watch the sheer passion and intensity on display in the re-runs of Currie Cup finals from early in the last decade to realise what it meant to the players, even the Springboks who were allowed to take part back then. Hopefully once crowds are allowed to attend as well, they will show similar enthusiasm.

Pote Human is one of the most well-liked coaches in the country but it was not enough to save him from the changes sweeping through Loftus Versfeld in the wake of former Springbok coach Jake White’s appointment at the helm of Bulls rugby.

White had already made it clear that even though his designation is director of rugby, he sees himself having a very hands-on, on-field coaching role. That means there is no room for Human when it comes to guiding the SuperRugby side and the Blue Bulls Company announced on Friday that there would be an amicable parting of the ways.

Human joins a raft of changes at Loftus Versfeld, with chief executive Alfonso Meyer also standing down at the end of the month and 17 players reportedly set to get the chop, including captain Burger Odendaal and Springboks Cornal Hendricks and Juandre Kruger.

“The Blue Bulls Company would like to confirm that it has come to a mutual agreement with Super Rugby head coach Pote Human regarding the early termination of his current contract, which was due to end in October 2020. The BBCo were open and transparent in informing Human that the contract would not be extended. Given the current situation, with no rugby expected to be played in the near future, both parties mutually agreed on exiting with immediate effect, thus also allowing Human extra time with his future planning,” the union said in their statement on Friday.

And just to prove what a nice guy he is, Human expressed his gratitude to the Bulls and went on to call for all involved with the Bulls to support White.

“My time at Loftus has been amazing to say the least. It has been an emotional rollercoaster, with many highs and lows. But through it all I have made friendships and memories that I will treasure forever. I have dedicated my life to this beautiful game and trust me there is no better place to do that than at Loftus Versfeld.

“I would sincerely like to thank the BBCo for giving me the opportunity to live my dreams and for affording me the privilege to work with some truly amazing people. I’d like to wish them every success going forward and it is important for Jake to get the backing and support from all stakeholders. He certainly has my support and I wish him all of the best,” Human said.

History will record that Human did not win any trophies with the Bulls, making the SuperRugby playoffs last year and the Currie Cup semi-finals in 2018, but his coaching prowess should obviously be measured by the resources at his disposal, especially a glaring lack of playing quality due to the extremely poor recruitment that took place at Loftus Versfeld before his stint as head coach.

Meyer praised the influence Human has had on the lives of both players and staff.

“Pote is known as more than a coach at Loftus and has influenced the lives and careers of players and staff alike. He is a nurturer and a mentor, and has made a lasting impact on many great players. Pote is an absolute gentleman of the game and has been an asset to the Bulls Family. However, it is time for us to part ways, and we wish him everything of the best with his journey ahead,” Meyer said.