Ken Borland

Duane Vermeulen may have enjoyed the facilities of a fancy suite at the hotel at Loftus Park, but it was no place for a family to live and this is believed to be the main reason the Springbok eighthman decided to leave the Bulls after just one year.

Vermeulen, who played a key role in turning around the fortunes of the Bulls, leading them to their first Currie Cup title since 2009 in January, has decided to continue his epic career at Ulster in Northern Ireland. While it is sad news for the Bulls, they do have the consolation of the fantastic environment the Springbok talisman helped build and the knowledge that they have an eighthman star-of-the-future to replace him in Elrigh Louw.

“Duane’s contract with us ended on August 31 and we had plenty of chats about his plans and wanted him for another season. But he has been commuting from Cape Town, staying in the hotel, and that is not ideal when you’re trying to raise a family. His family has been back in Cape Town, he’s 35 years old now and it’s a good deal he’s been offered by Ulster.

“It make sense for Duane and his family to take up that offer. But he adds immense value wherever he goes and the stability we have in our squad now is partly due to him. He has really added to our culture and a winning environment here,” Bulls CEO Edgar Rathbone told Saturday Citizen on Friday.

Vermeulen was in top-class form before he suffered a twisted ankle that required surgery in early June. It meant he missed the series against the British and Irish Lions, a rare gap in his Springbok CV, and he only made a return to the national team, without having his usual influence, last weekend against Australia.

But the fact that the Nelspuit product has signed a two-year contract with Ulster suggests he is looking to still be a part of the Springbok set-up when they go for a second-successive title at the 2023 World Cup in France.

Meanwhile, the Bulls announced their touring squad for the United Rugby Championship that starts next weekend with a visit to Leinster, consistent European powerhouses with a handful of trophies since 2008/9. The Bulls will be taking a half-dozen high-quality loose forwards overseas with them – Arno Botha, Marcell Coetzee, Jacques du Plessis, Muller Uys, Louw and WJ Steenkamp.

It will be all change for the Sharks in both halfback positions as they begin their United Rugby Championship campaign overseas, following the announcement on Friday of their touring squad that is without Lionel Cronje but includes two scrumhalves on loan from the Free State.

The 32-year-old Cronje was on a short-term loan to the Sharks from Toyota Verblitz in Japan for the duration of the Currie Cup and his arrival saw coach Sean Everitt shift Curwin Bosch from flyhalf to fullback.

But Cronje’s departure means Bosch is likely to return to the number 10 jersey in which Everitt backed him so strongly before the Currie Cup. Boeta Chamberlain is the only other specialist flyhalf in the squad.

Veteran Springbok Ruan Pienaar has returned to the Sharks on loan from the Cheetahs and has moved to flyhalf quite often during games for Free State, but with the Sharks suffering an injury crisis at scrumhalf, Pienaar is likely to be backing up Sanele Nohamba. Tian Meyer has also made the trip from Bloemfontein to Durban on loan.

Everitt will be pleased to have locks Hyron Andrews and Ruben van Heerden back from injury, which will add depth to a crucial position that already features Gerbrandt Grobler, Le Roux Roets and Reniel Hugo.

Eighthman Phepsi Buthelezi will lead a squad that will relish taking on some fresh opposition, having butted heads many times back home with the Bulls and taking a severe beating in the Currie Cup final last weekend.

“The boys are up for the challenge, we have some experienced players who have played in the Pro16 before and have had a taste of European conditions, and we have coaching staff who have coached at the highest level. We’re all confident that we can do well overseas, we’ve taken a young squad mixed with some older heads with experience.
“It will be exciting to see what these guys can deliver against opposition that we don’t see too often, nor play against. The boys are excited about experiencing a new competition, the URC is a tough tournament that brings in new challenges and different opposition, but the guys are up for the challenge after a very good Currie Cup and a good year,” Everitt said.

Squad: Anthony Volmink, Yaw Penxe, Thaakir Abrahams, Marnus Potgieter, Werner Kok, Marius Louw, Jeremy Ward, Murray Koster, Rynhardt Jonker, Curwin Bosch, Boeta Chamberlain, Sanele Nohamba, Ruan Pienaar, Tian Meyer, Phepsi Buthelezi, Henco Venter, Thembelani Bholi, Celimpilo Gumede, Dylan Richardson, James Venter, Gerbrandt Grobler, Hyron Andrews, Le Roux Roets, Reniel Hugo, Ruben van Heerden, Thomas du Toit, Khutha Mchunu, Lourens Adriaanse, Ntuthuko Mchunu, Wiehahn Herbst, Khwezi Mona, Kerron van Vurren, Fez Mbatha, Dan Jooste.

The Springboks’ maverick approach to both game-plan and selection has certainly served them well since their third match in the 2019 World Cup, but this morning’s Rugby Championship Test against Australia was only the second time that it has been used against one of the Australasian sides.

South Africa lost 13-23 to New Zealand in their World Cup opener, using a traditional 5-3 split between forwards and backs on the bench and struggling to get much momentum in the game. An easy 57-3 win over Namibia followed, but their next match, against Italy, was a potential knockout blow.

That was when the 6-2 bench was first used and the Springboks really started to use a kicking game in order to gain momentum.

Their execution of the plan was poor last weekend against Australia and it is still early days when it comes to deciding whether the Bomb Squad replacements tactic will work against teams like the Wallabies and especially the All Blacks next weekend, sides that are used to playing at high intensity.

“We believe in the 6-2 split, it has worked for us and there’s no need to panic when it comes to selection,” assistant coach Mzwandile Stick said this week after the Gold Coast defeat.

For some though, the risks in the strategy are too great when it comes to well-matched opposition who are likely to keep the result to within a single score. There was heartbreak last weekend for the Springboks when flyhalf Handre Pollard had an off-day with the boot and his replacement, Damian Willemse, who is not a frontline kicker for the Stormers, missed the Springboks’ last kick at goal, a 73^rd-minute conversion.

There is little respite for Pollard, such a key performer for the Springboks and very seldom rested. But a 6-2 bench makes it hard for Jacques Nienaber to choose a specialist goal-kicking flyhalf amongst the replacements because both Morne Steyn and Elton Jantjies are not going to be able to provide real cover for any other backline position.

“Week in and week out, there is always massive debate about our selection and not just this week. It’s nothing new. Handre did not have his best game last week, but we did not lose because of that, it was mostly down to our discipline. He has been brilliant for us since 2018, but sometimes a star will have an off-day, he’s only human. Damian is a brilliant player and is still getting better. We did not lose because of kicks at poles,” Stick said.

Captain Siya Kolisi said on Friday that the Springboks have been measured by themselves and they found themselves wanting in last weekend’s defeat to Australia, which is why they will be running out with great determination to rectify that when they meet the Wallabies again in a Rugby Championship Test at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on Saturday.

South Africa went down 26-28 to Australia last weekend in an unfocused, error-strewn and ill-disciplined performance. Kolisi said the world champions and the team clinging on to the number one ranking under pressure from the All Blacks know they are much better than what they showed on the Gold Coast.

“We know exactly where we went wrong, it was very upsetting to lose like that. The mistakes we made with things that are normally a given, it was so tough to see that on the review. They were simple errors. Just on the day, we were not at our best in the physical part. We have our standards, but we made fewer tackles and especially less dominant tackles, Australia dominated their hits with ball-in-hand.

“We compared ourselves to how we played against Argentina and the British and Irish Lions and the standard was definitely not the same. We need to make that better first before we complain about anything else. So we are going to be more determined on Saturday to bring what we did not show on the field last weekend,” Kolisi said.

To make matters tougher, the Springboks have a very disappointing record in Brisbane. Since the return from isolation, South Africa have won just once there in 12 attempts against Australia. Kolisi, along with Willie le Roux, Eben Etzebeth and Duane Vermeulen, is one of the players who featured in that memorable 38-12 hammering of the Wallabies in 2013.

“We’ve only won once at Suncorp and we want to change that, but the most important thing is for us to stay in the competition and defend the Rugby Championship. So we are going to throw everything into this game. We’ve spent the week asking ourselves why we did not get to where we are meant to be in the previous game and I’m confident we will pitch up this weekend.

“Winning is what we care about, that’s the only way we can maintain our number one ranking. But the ranking is not our focus, we want to get back into the competition and give ourselves a chance of winning it again. But if we’re not disciplined then we won’t get the result we want,” Kolisi said.