Ken Borland

Springbok Sbu Nkosi will get the chance to re-establish himself as one of the country’s top three wings in Pretoria next season, with Bulls coach Jake White confirming on Friday that the 26-year-old is heading to Loftus Versfeld.

Nkosi has been one of the Sharks’ star players over the last few years, but with Madosh Tambwe leaving for Europe at the end of this season, the Bulls approached the World Cup winner and have now won the tug-of-war for his services.

The Barberton product was contracted at the Sharks until July 1, but he has hardly featured in their United Rugby Championship campaign due to persistent illness and recent surgery. Nkosi is in danger of losing his place in the Springbok squad due to his lack of chance to shine, especially with the rise of players like Aphelele Fassi, Tambwe and Seabelo Senatla. He was previously considered next in line to Cheslin Kolbe and Makazole Mapimpi, and he played in the 2019 World Cup semi-final against Wales when Kolbe was injured.

“Sbu Nkosi will start with us when Madosh goes to Europe,” White confirmed on Friday. “When the season at the Sharks ends, he will move back up to Gauteng and he will join us on July 1.

“He can’t come and join us before the end of the season though. The only new guy coming before July is Ruan Vermaak, whose season in Japan has ended and he will be an extra forward for us,” White said.

With the Bulls backed by such successful businessmen as Patrice Motsepe and Johann Rupert, they are probably the only South African franchise who can compete with the Sharks, who are backed by the wealthy MVM Consortium, for players.

The Bulls entered European rugby this season like a teenager with acne hesitantly stepping on to the dance floor, but captain Marcell Coetzee will be telling them they will become men when they participate in the Champions Cup later this year.

Despite a poor start to their United Rugby Championship campaign when they were thrown into the deep end and had to play Leinster, Connacht and Edinburgh away from home at the start of the UK winter, the Bulls have secured a quarterfinal place and the Champions Cup qualification that goes with it, with one match to spare.

Coetzee played in the premier European tournament while at Ulster from 2016-2021.

“I hope it doesn’t take as long for us to adapt and my brief to the guys will be that this is when you become men,” Coetzee said on Thursday. “It’s nice for us to have a bite of that cherry and it’s a great format.

“The fans love it and hopefully some will travel here and ours will go to Europe. It’s a very unique, special tournament and you come up against the top French, English and Irish clubs.

“It’s where you can really measure yourself as a team and as an individual. The tournament has such great traditions and it’s like playing international rugby.

“Our game was a bit stop/start when we were just playing domestically, our tempo went down, but we now recognise that there is a lot of tempo and creativity in Europe,” Coetzee said.

The Springbok flank was speaking at the announcement that the second edition of the Carling Black Label Currie Cup Champions Match will take place at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on July 2, and, with the Bulls currently top of the Currie Cup log and facing two crucial games over the next fortnight, he said the Loftus Versfeld players are learning to deal with the discomfit of playing in two tournaments at once.

“At the beginning of the season, Jake White [coach] made it abundantly clear that the Bulls want to be competitive in all competitions. We want to win trophies and we all buy into the idea of a one-team union,” Coetzee said.

“For some games, doubling up has been really tough, like when we played Munster the one weekend, the Sharks in midweek and then Scarlets the following weekend.

“But we have good recovery systems in place so we can be competitive on all fronts. The most important thing is that the players are driven to do it from the inside.

“While at Ulster I can remember playing the Pro14 final the one week and Heineken Cup the next week. Your body takes a hammering, but doubling up is possible if the right structures and mental attitudes are in place,” Coetzee said.

The Bulls are likely to attack the next two weekends of Currie Cup action as hard as player-management allows, but they will be hoping the Lions and Sharks follow suit as they can do the Loftus Versfeld team a massive favour over the next fortnight by beating back the charge of the Free State Cheetahs.

The Bulls are sitting at the top of the Currie Cup log at the moment, but they are just one point ahead of Free State, who have a game in hand.

While the Bulls are hosting Griquas at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday, the Cheetahs will be visiting the Lions at Ellis Park on Friday night. The Lions are bottom of the log and, given that they cannot make the URC playoffs anymore, they could well decide to focus on ensuring a better final position in the Currie Cup.

The Sharks then play Free State on May 14 and the Bulls would love them to take a strong team to Bloemfontein. But the Bulls host the Lions on the same weekend, before flying to the UK on the Monday, so that could be a pivotal game in their bid to top the Currie Cup log.

“We don’t know exactly what the other franchises are planning,” Bulls assistant coach Pine Pienaar said on Tuesday. “The Lions did really well in the URC at home, so maybe they want to end that competition on a high.

“They will show their hand with their selection against the Cheetahs this week, and then they could play the same side against us the following weekend. I would guess quite a few URC players would feature.

“I think there will also be URC players here and there in our team, although obviously some guys will be resting and there are a few players at the Springbok training group.

“We still see the Currie Cup as being very important, but all loading of the players has to be managed carefully. In some positions we don’t have as much depth, so we have to manage carefully when those guys rest,” Pienaar said.

Big calls will have to be made by head coaches Jake White and Gert Smal, and it is only going to get more complicated for the Bulls.

If the Bulls do win their URC quarterfinal on June 4 then they will advance to the semi-finals on June 11. That is the same day they are scheduled to play the Free State Cheetahs in Bloemfontein in the final round of Currie Cup action, in a match that could well decide who hosts the final.

The Currie Cup semi-finals then clash with the URC final on June 18, with the local final being played on June 25.

It was only after being told that “actions speak louder than words” that the Sharks managed to put together a focused second half, keeping the ball through several phases, to pile pressure on Connacht and eventually hammer them 41-21 in their United Rugby Championship match at Kings Park.

A messy, error-strewn first half saw the Sharks trailing 10-21 at the break, but they were inspired in the third quarter, scoring three tries in 14 minutes to settle the contest.

“Things didn’t go our way in the first half,” coach Sean Everitt said, “it was strange, there were a lot of penalties and not much ball-in-play. There were a lot of errors by both teams in the first 10 minutes.

“It was difficult for us to get going, but halftime gave us the opportunity to regroup and have a good, honest talk. We said actions are bigger than words.

“The guys settled down then and got the job done. The second forty was much better and we did not want to disappoint the big crowd that came to support us,” Everitt said.

Aphelele Fassi was particularly rampant after the break, starting with a superb 50/22 kick that provided the territory for centre Marius Louw’s try. Just four minutes later, the fullback brilliantly gathered an up-and-under and then roared clear on counter-attack, into the Connacht 22 and again providing the platform for a try, this time by hooker Bongi Mbonambi.

Everitt clearly rates the 24-year-old highly.

“If you kick well then you often get a kick back and then there’s a counter-attacking opportunity. That brings Aphelele into the game and he is really dangerous.

“He has great feet and can really open up the game,” Everitt said.

Connacht coach Andy Friend admitted his frustration at his team’s second-half collapse.

“You could see the Sharks power come through, but unfortunately we also gave them some loose kicks and loose ball and that allows their potent back three to cut you open.

“That allowed them to build pressure and momentum. There have been too many occasions through the year where we’ve had multiple scores against us in quick succession,” Friend said.