Ken Borland

The timing of the serious knee injury suffered by Bulls flyhalf Johan Goosen was so frustrating that it would be little wonder if Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber was pulling the hair out of the top of his head. If he had any there of course.

The 29-year-old Goosen has played 13 Tests for the Springboks, the last in 2016, and he said on Wednesday that he is hopeful of getting back there. Since being encouraged back into rugby at the Bulls, his exceptional displays last year saw him set to return to the international fold, before he tore his ACL ligament last October. But he is clearly in Nienaber’s long-term 2023 World Cup plans.

“The rehab is going well but I still have two-to-three months to go before I can get on the pitch and train again,” Goosen, who was walking unaided, said at a Castle Lager media launch in Tembisa on Wednesday.

“It’s been tough mentally and I had to have a second surgery about two months ago because something was loose in the knee, so that was the 11^th operation of my career, so I’m used to it.

“Coming back to South Africa, I played well enough that I really thought I had a chance at the Springboks, so I was sad to get injured. But Jacques Nienaber did phone me and ask if I still wanted to play for the Boks.

“I’ve been at the two alignment camps this year and from being a little boy, I just wanted to play in a World Cup. In 2015, Heyneke Meyer said I was going and then didn’t pick me, and in 2019 I had stuff going on off the field,” Goosen said, referring to his controversial retirement from the game.

It really does seem like the experienced flyhalf’s deepest desire is indeed to return to the Springbok squad for next year’s World Cup and, if all goes well and he is back playing in September, then there is plenty of time to earn his recall. There may not be any Currie Cup for him to use to ease back into action though, and it will be straight back into Europe for the former France-based player.

“My new goal is to work really hard and make the World Cup squad. I’m targeting a return in the United Rugby Championship, and hopefully I will just miss the first two or three matches.

“It’s going to be tough in Europe next season because there’s the Champions Cup as well. I played in the Challenge Cup final and even that is a level up from the URC,” Goosen said.

Edinburgh prop Pierre Schoeman says the Cape Town Stadium and its adjacent Waterfront have plenty of distractions but his focus will be squarely on his key battle with the Stormers front row in their United Rugby Championship quarterfinal on June 4.

Schoeman is well-experienced when it comes to travelling to Cape Town to take on the Stormers, having done it several times while playing for their archrivals the Bulls between 2014 and 2018, before he joined Edinburgh and subsequently made his international debut, scoring a try, for Scotland in October 2021.

“I feel it’s a massive responsibility because the scrums are going to be a key battle, and the lineouts,” Schoeman said on Tuesday. “And the Stormers scrum has been going really well, they still pride themselves on that.

“Steven Kitshoff speaks for himself, Scarra Ntubeni is also a very good scrummager, and there’s a reason why Frans Malherbe is paid the big bucks at tighthead. Neethling Fouche has also done very well there.

“So we are putting a lot of emphasis on the scrums, but I have to be careful not to make it an individual battle. I can’t just throw my weight around just against those two props.

“I have to do my bit for the team and there are small moments you are responsible for that can make the momentum better for your team. Not just scrums, but tackles, carrying well, lifting in the lineouts,” Schoeman said.

The 28-year-old with nine Test caps said Edinburgh are also going to have to concentrate hard on their defence, against a Stormers side that are equipped to punish any looseness in their strategy or execution.

“The Stormers scrum is really good and their lineout is decent too, but then you’ve got that tight five offloading to wings all over the field.

“Evan Roos gets them on the front foot and then you’ve got Damian Willemse standing at flyhalf and using his quick feet to create something out of nothing.

“Tactically we need to be spot-on, but we pride ourselves on our defence and we have so much up our attacking sleeves as well. We respect them and we’ll have to be vigilant on defence when they start chucking the ball around.

“If you give them a small gap then they can win another 10-15 metres with just one offload. The Stormers are not like in the past just bashing it up, all of a sudden you have the quick feet of a Warrick Gelant joining the line,” Schoeman warned.

There’s a lot to think about for the young players at Loftus Versfeld these days: Trying to win the United Rugby Championship and the Currie Cup at the same time, and then next year having the European Champions Cup as another add-on to their plate.

And for an exciting prospect like loose forward Muller Uys, who also played club rugby for Tuks last weekend, there is the added pressure of trying to nail down a place in the Bulls URC squad.

The 23-year-old Uys will no doubt pack down at the back of the scrum for the Bulls on Friday night in their Currie Cup match against the Pumas, but with Cyle Brink injuring his knee against the Ospreys last weekend, there is likely to be a place in the match-day 23 for the following weekend’s quarterfinal against the Sharks.

Uys credits the set-up at Loftus for providing both clarity and motivation for all their players.

“When I get the chance, it’s my responsibility to show I am good enough to play URC,” Uys said on Tuesday. “I need to take ownership and show what I’m worth. There’s a clear plan and the players understand.

“In terms of training with the two squads, they make it easy for us to go from Currie Cup to URC, to slot into either side. The way we prepare, it’s 100% about the long-term and that will help a lot for next year.

“My career took a bit of a different turn with injury, but I must just take it day-by-day and keep learning. I must not think I’m too old or too good to learn. In a way I’ve started afresh.

“I played club rugby for Tuks last week, it was a nice way to get game-time, keep the skills sharp. It’s an opportunity to grow and learn because maybe there are things you haven’t seen there,” Uys said.

The Bulls Currie Cup side showed their ability when they totally dominated a URC-strength Lions team in their first half of their previous Currie Cup game, before sadly going off the boil in the second half. But the 43-37 win has nevertheless given them a timely confidence boost going into the last couple of rounds.

“We’ll carry a lot of confidence from that game because the Lions had a quality side and we manned up and really went well in the first half. There’s a lot of responsibility now for us to back up that performance,” Uys said.

“We matched up physically and did quite well against the Lions, we just had to manage the game better in the final 40 minutes, both with the ball and without ball-in-hand. The Pumas will not be much different to be honest,” assistant coach Hayden Groepes said.

Not for the first time this season, the Sharks passed their test in terms of determination and effort, but failed when it came to execution and taking chances, their 24-21 defeat at the hands of Ulster allowing the Bulls to overtake them on the final United Rugby Championship log and snatch a home quarterfinal.

And, with the Sharks finishing fifth and the Bulls’ fourth, it means the KwaZulu-Natalians will have to travel to Pretoria to take on the Currie Cup champions at Loftus Versfeld on the weekend of June 4 to try and keep their URC hopes alive.

Given what was at stake in Belfast, it was a poor display by the Sharks. Soft defensive moments cost them in the first half as Ulster rattled up a 17-0 lead, and then, although they dominated most of the second half, the Sharks were not accurate enough to turn that into tries. Until the last five minutes, when they scored twice to lend respectability to the scoreline.

“The guys played with a lot of energy, they played their hearts out and I’m very proud of the guys for the courage they showed,” coach Sean Everitt said. “The way they fought back justifies that.

“But our first half was not great, our defence was not sharp enough and we gave Ulster two tries they really did not have to work for.

“The second half was a different story and we had opportunities. We played some really good rugby to get into good positions. But unfortunately we lost the breakdown battle, Ulster put a lot of pressure on us there and they defended really well.

“But we played some of the best ball-in-hand rugby we’ve produced this season, we had good territory and field position, and credit to the bench for the huge impact they made,” Everitt said.

It was always going to be a tough test playing one of the Irish powerhouses away, and the Sharks now need to find a way to win at Loftus Versfeld, where they have not enjoyed a good time in recent knockout matches.

“Coming to the Kingspan Stadium was tough, it’s not an easy ground to play at. Ulster are a big and physical side.

“Big lessons were learned, but we are still very disappointed, it was a game that got away from us. We could have … ,“ Everitt mused without finishing his sentence.