Ken Borland

The effectiveness with which the Bulls were able to kill the Sharks’ momentum in last weekend’s SuperFan Saturday match at Loftus Versfeld will weigh heavily on coach Sean Everitt’s mind as he prepares for the tough SuperRugby Unlocked challenges that lie ahead.

While the Sharks set the tone in SuperRugby earlier this year with the brisk tempo of their play and the efficient finishing of their backline, the Bulls showed that both those factors can be taken out of the equation if the KwaZulu-Natalians are beaten at source and don’t get enough quick ball, with the home side romping to a 49-28 win in Pretoria.

The loss of Andre Esterhuizen, Tyler Paul, Juan Schoeman and Le Roux Roets has robbed the Sharks of much go-forward grunt and they will have some other big packs to contend with when Super Rugby Unlocked starts on October 9 when they host the Lions in Durban.

“I thought the Bulls’ breakdown work was outstanding and we battled to get quick ball. Momentum comes from what type of ball you get at the breakdown and it was difficult for us to get any momentum, difficult to get on the front foot. In terms of physicality, the Bulls handled us well. It’s always difficult when you’re under the pump and don’t get over the gain-line.

“You end up making mistakes under pressure and turnovers, which means you’re always on the back foot. So it was obviously not the scoreline we wanted. We wanted to play off turnovers but they negated that and then three missed balls in the air cost us three tries. We will have to reorganise in that area, although we were also a bit unfortunate on attack,” Everitt said.

Given that the Sharks play a high-risk, high-reward type of rugby and that they now have a young side, it was understandable that there were costly moments when sound judgement was not always apparent.

“We certainly took a lot of learnings from the game. We came in with an enlarged squad and a lot of really good youngsters, and in the second half they did exceptionally well, playing the style of rugby we wanted. When you play risky rugby, sometimes things are not going to go well and missing some balls in the air cost us, the Bulls did well in the set-pieces and their breakdown work was outstanding.

“When we were deep inside their 22, maybe we didn’t always take the right options and we’ll now have to refocus. Injuries will happen, that’s part of the game, and we were fortunate not to have many in SuperRugby. But now a perfect scenario would be being able to rotate the squad, but we are still getting contact fit. The good news is James Venter, Henco Venter and Madosh Tambwe should all be available for the Lions game,” Everitt said.

Kurt-Lee Arendse (Bulls)

One of the growing network of Sevens stars who are making a big impact in XVs rugby. Given what he showed in scoring his incredible 80m try against the Sharks, surely there is no-one quicker than Arendse in South African rugby? Even fellow speedster Stedman Gans said he would not be able to catch the 24-year-old from behind. So impressive was Arendse’s weekend display that the Springbok management invited him to their camp this week as a late replacement for injured Stormers wing Seabelo Senatla, but Arendse unfortunately did not connect with his aeroplane, missing his flight due to what Erasmus called a “miscommunication”. Someone as fast as Arendse surely wouldn’t have been late?

Morne Steyn (Bulls)

At the age of 36 and with his last selection for the Springboks happening in 2016, Steyn would have been considered a no-hoper for an international recall before last weekend. But the serious injury to Handre Pollard and the question marks that still remain over Damian Willemse and Curwin Bosch, followed by Steyn’s superb display in controlling the game for the Bulls at the weekend, means the veteran might just be one more injury away from a shock return to contention. The Bulls played at a terrific tempo at the weekend and Steyn certainly did not seem like an oupa trying to keep up. His game management was outstanding, his goalkicking (5/5) faultless and any backline scoring six tries suggests the flyhalf must have been doing something right on attack.

Nama Xaba (Stormers)

The Stormers’ reserve openside may have only been given half-an-hour of game time at Loftus Versfeld, but Xaba was all over the park in that time and a constant thorn in the flesh of the Lions at every breakdown. When the 23-year-old latched on to the ball in the ruck, it was only the referee who was able to get him off it, sometimes unfairly penalising him as well. The former Junior Springbok from Durban was also strong in the numerous tackles he made.

Jacques van Rooyen (Bulls)

Playing his first game in South Africa for two years and back in the province from where the Lions snatched him from club rugby, Van Rooyen’s belated first game in a Bulls jersey was an unqualified success. Strong in the scrum, the loosehead prop gave an inspirational display in the tight-loose, his 6’1, 122kg frame always being in the thick of things as he played a major role in denying the Sharks pack any go-forward.

Grant Williams (Sharks)

The speedy 24-year-old is the type of scrumhalf who throws not just the kitchen sink at it in attack but all the pots and pans as well. The Paarl Gimnasium product’s hopes of establishing himself in the Sharks team have been damned by injury in recent times, but coach Sean Everitt rates him highly and, in a well-beaten team, his pace and attacking intent at Loftus Versfeld were impressive.

South Africa’s Rugby Championship participation is obviously dependent on government approval, but player welfare is also a major concern for Director of Rugby Rassie Erasmus and his personal opinion is that the Springboks are going to be underdone in terms of game time.

South Africa’s opening Rugby Championship game is against Argentina on November 7 and they have to arrive in Australia by October 18 in order to quarantine for two weeks, but that means the members of the Springbok squad that are based in South Africa will only have a maximum of 240 minutes under their belts – SuperFan Saturday, this weekend’s Green v Gold match and the opening round of Super Rugby Unlocked.

“We desperately want to play because it would be terrible to have a year with no Test rugby. But we’ve had no clear answer from the English clubs about their semi-finals and final, we have to take a massive squad because you need four players in each key position and we all have to arrive at the same time because of two weeks quarantine, during which we can practise together.

“The science tells us that the players need five or six games, 400-500 minutes, before playing Test rugby is safe because of the injury risk and player welfare. It’s a tough one because we know we have to go, but we just don’t know how it’s going to be possible. And we don’t have much time to sort it out, the decisions all have to be done by October 10. It’s a matter of high performance and player welfare, we want to be competitive but 240 minutes is the most our players will have,” Erasmus said on Monday.

It’s fortunate that the players don’t have to be isolated in their hotel rooms, stuck on their cellular phones and gaming devices, for their two-week isolation, but even playing intra-squad matches between themselves is fraught with risk.

“We’ll be lucky if most of them have more than 200 minutes game time when we arrive in Australia, but we can probably still play against each other, a 46-man squad means we have two teams of 23. So if we play twice then that adds another 160 minutes, takes us to 360, which is nearly there. And there may be more intensity than usual because the guys will be playing for spots. “But then there’s also the risk of more injuries. And it’s not just your 15 players that you are worried about, it could be any of 30 guys on the field at any given time. Plus all 46 of the squad have played less than 200 minutes and have been under strict Lockdown, the toughest in the world. So there are a lot of problems with that as well! But ultimately the decision will be made for us,” Erasmus said.

Springbok Sevens players would appear to be hot property in South African rugby at the moment, none more so than Stedman Gans after his performance at outside centre for the Bulls last weekend, and the 23-year-old believes the way the tempo of the game is increasing, the Blitzbokke will come into the picture more and more.

Gans was instrumental in a startling display of dazzling skills and pace by the Bulls backline as they ran in six of the seven tries they scored against the Sharks on SuperFan Saturday, and his reading of the game – a vital attribute for No.13s – was superb.

“Playing tempo is very important now and that’s how you get the defence out of breath and then take that space, that’s when guys like Kurt-Lee Arendse and myself come into it. From Sevens we’ve learnt how to manipulate defences and it’s how the XVs game is evolving, the tempo is picking up and you’re going to see Sevens players make more and more of an impact.

“At the Sevens squad, getting off the ground quickly is very important to coach Neil Powell so it’s almost second nature for me, and now it’s something that coach Jake White measures you on as well. It was also his plan from the start for myself and Cornal Hendricks [inside centre] to feed off each other. We both like running and offloading and we have a big pack that’s going to create space for us to play that running game,” Gans said on Monday.

Apart from the young Sevens tyros sparkling in the backline, White has surrounded them with extremely experienced Springboks in 36-year-old flyhalf Morne Steyn, 37-year-old fullback Gio Aplon and 32-year-old Hendricks. Gans said he has fed off their wisdom and composure and it is one of the reasons the Bulls were able to hit the ground running and produce the sort of attacking verve that has seldom been seen from the home side at Loftus Versfeld.

“Gio played like a 25-year-old and I’ve spent a lot of time with him. He’s been around the block a couple of times and he brings calmness – he and Morne Steyn. I’ve loved learning from their experience. We were very happy with how we started and we were pretty unrusty. We looked at the New Zealand teams and how they played after Lockdown and we wanted to do the same.

“In those six months out, the first thing was to get our conditioning back, then our skills and then get the contact in as soon as possible after it was allowed. Doing our jobs while in fatigue, both in defence and attack, has been a real focus. Defensively, for a first hit-out, it wasn’t too bad either, but we saw how the New Zealand teams approached coming back and we really took inspiration from that, just come out and fire and trust yourself in the system,” Gans said.