Ken Borland

The current Bulls squad seems to have the potential to grow into mighty oaks, but at the moment their young, inexperienced pack could be likened to a bonsai, which is probably why coach Nollis Marais on Monday announced former Springbok eighthman Anton Leonard as one of his assistant coaches.

Leonard, who captained the Bulls at the beginning of the century as they began their climb out of the mire, will be the forwards coach having impressed Marais with his work with the South-Western Districts pack.

“I’ve been speaking to Anton for a while and he’s done excellent work with South-Western Districts, they almost beat the Lions in the Vodacom Cup to make the semi-finals. He’s the best forwards coach currently available and he’s very experienced. How many Super Rugby games has he played, he knows the Bulls’ tradition, he knows about the travel and our culture.

“He told me he wants to make the Bulls proud again and get the old values back. The players look up to him and he agrees with me that rugby has changed and we have to change our style of play. But to do that we have to have a platform up front, and Western Province showed where we need to improve by putting us under pressure in the set-pieces,” Marais told The Citizen.

David Manual, who has done brilliant work with this year’s Currie Cup squad, will be the backline coach, while Gary Botha (scrums & breakdowns) and Pine Pienaar (defence) will work with all Bulls teams as specialist coaches.

Hendre’ Marnitz, who replaced Marais as Blue Bulls U21 coach when he was promoted to the senior team, has also been confirmed as next year’s Currie Cup coach.

After eight years of service, Org Strauss has resigned as the team doctor and will be replaced by Herman Rossouw.

The Sharks are expecting to go to France in a month’s time with a close-to-full-strength squad for their challenge match against European champions Toulon, according to assistant coach Brad Macleod-Henderson.

The mouth-watering clash against the Heineken Cup powerhouses will take place on Thursday, February 5 at the Stade Mayol, with the Sharks leaving for France on January 31. Barring any injury concerns, it will be the final SuperRugby squad that goes on tour, and Macleod-Henderson said the period of team-building during the week in France would be as important as the actual game.

“Toulon are the best team in Europe, so obviously it’s going to be a good test for us, but it’s also a time when we can strengthen the relationships within the team,” Macleod-Henderson told The Citizen.

The current Springboks in the squad will start training on Monday and most of them will be available for the Toulon match, while the likes of Willem Alberts and Pieter-Steph du Toit are online with their rehabilitation to play in the Sharks’ opening SuperRugby fixture on February 14 against the Cheetahs in Durban.

This year’s SuperRugby competition will be slightly different, with no break in June for international rugby and the World Cup in September providing plenty of motivation for the players.

The focus for the Sharks in their pre-season preparations has been on their attack, with Macleod-Henderson saying they need to score more tries.

“The World Cup is definitely going to up the ante this year and we need to score more tries to win the competition, the Waratahs showed that last year. We’re working on it, we’re spending quite a bit of time on our attack,” he said.

But the 2013 Currie Cup-winning coach said there was still plenty of work going into the details of defence and the breakdown.

New Zealand are expecting South Africa to play with more width than in their previous meeting when they clash in a Rugby Championship Test in Soweto on Saturday, assistant coach Ian Foster said on Tuesday.

The All Blacks scraped past the Springboks 21-11 in Dunedin on September 15 with the visitors missing 20 points at goal.

But the South Africans bounced back to form with a morale-boosting 31-8 win over Australia in Pretoria last weekend, scoring five tries.

“They seem to have the intent to play with more width than they did against us in Dunedin and they may chuck a few different things at us on Saturday. We’ll need to assess where the threats are and make the adjustments.

“If you want to play expansive rugby, then there is the risk of errors and we’ve been through that process. It’s not something that comes naturally,” Foster told reporters in Johannesburg on Tuesday.

But the All Blacks are also expecting the Springboks to still bombard them with high kicks on the highveld.

“We still expect high balls and a tough physical battle through the forwards. Some things don’t change,” Foster said.

“We pride ourselves under the high ball, but the Springboks have put us under pressure with it in the past and they punish you if you drop it. Plus it goes a lot higher at altitude! We’ll have to work together as a unit at the back,” fullback Israel Dagg added.

The All Blacks also won in fine style at the weekend, beating Argentina 54-15 in La Plata to clinch the Rugby Championship title, and the world champions said the small details that had been lacking in the campaign thus far seemed to have clicked against the Pumas.

“We were pretty satisfied but the margins are still very small.

The pack definitely stepped up in Argentina and it was great to see the plans finally come together,” hooker Keven Mealamu said.

England assistant coach Simon Hardy said on Tuesday that Wednesday’s match against a “very proud” Southern Barbarians team is about restoring positive vibes in the touring camp after the disappointment of losing the first test to the Springboks last weekend.

England opened their South African tour with a 17-22 defeat against the Springboks in the first test in Durban, and now play an invitation side drawn from second division provinces in Kimberley on Wednesday.

The second test is back in Johannesburg on Saturday.

“We’ve had a loss so now we need to get the momentum back. If we can come away with a good win, then it will get things moving in the right direction again,” Hardy told a news conference in Johannesburg on Tuesday.

“We were disappointed with Saturday and we’ve reflected and had our review, but like all good sides, we know we’re on the path to somewhere. We learn from our disappointments and move on, we don’t encourage the players to dwell on their mistakes. The next game is all about positives.”

The Southern Barbarians have just three players with any SuperRugby experience – the former Lions trio of lock David Bulbring, prop Ross Geldenhuys and hooker Hannes Franklin – but Hardy said he was expecting a fiery encounter.

“It’s very traditional in the sense that all I know about the opposition are their heights, weights, date of birth and the teams they’ve played for, but it will be a physical battle and we need to take it on. I imagine, like most midweek teams, that they will have a lot of pride and will want to go out and get one over us,” Hardy said.

Harlequins lock George Robson will captain England in his first appearance in the senior national team jersey and he echoed Hardy’s desire to consign last weekend’s defeat to distant memory.

“It’s a massive honour, I’m really proud and it’s been really special to get so many messages from home today. But we need to make sure we build on the positives from the first game and improve on what we learnt. It’ll be great to have the test squad watching us, but we need to put on a good performance and get the result,” Robson said.

“We have some great players in key positions and lots of leaders at eight, nine and 10. Chris Robshaw [England’s test captain and Robson’s Harlequins team-mate] came and had a word with me and told me not to change anything, to do the same things and bring what I would normally bring to a game.”

Half-backs Danny Care and Charlie Hodgson, who have 70 test caps between them, will be in charge of directing England’s game plan on Wednesday, while experienced former New Zealander Thomas Waldrom is an imposing presence at eighthman.

Hardy defended the management’s decision that the test squad would travel together with the midweek team to Kimberley, which is a 90-minute flight (453km).

“We’re one squad and the culture in the group is that we are one team. These players have supported the test squad the last two weeks in training … ” Hardy said.

Teams

Southern Barbarians – 15-Jacquin Jansen (Boland); 14-Cornal Hendricks (Boland), 13-Kempie Rautenbach (SWD), 12-Wayne Stevens (EP Kings), 11-Norman Nelson (EP Kings); 10-Elgar Watts (Boland), 9-Boela Abrahams (EP Kings); 8-Jacques Engelbrecht (EP Kings), 7-Shaun Raubenheimer (SWD), 6-Mpho Mbiyozo (EP Kings); 5-David Bulbring (EP Kings), 4-Nolan Clark (Boland); 3-Ross Geldenhuys (Boland), 2-Hannes Franklin (EP Kings), 1-Corne Fourie (Pumas). Replacements: 16-Clemen Lewis (Boland), 17-Dean Hopp (SWD), 18-Samora Fihlani (Border), 19-Zandre’ Jordaan (Boland), 20-Ntando Kebe (Border), 21-Ricardo Croy (Boland), 22-Ntabeni Dukisa (Border).

England – 15-Alex Goode, 14-David Strettle, 13-Anthony Allen, 12-Jordan Turner-Hall, 11-Christian Wade, 10-Charlie Hodgson, 9-Danny Care. 8-Thomas Waldrom, 7-Carl Fearns, 6-James Haskell, 5-George Robson, 4-Graham Kitchener, 3-Paul Doran-Jones, 2-Joe Gray, 1-Mutt Mullan. Replacements: 16-Tom Youngs, 17-Rupert Harden, 18-Tom Palmer, 19-Jamie Gibson, 20-Lee Dickson, 21-George Lowe, 22-Nick Abendanon.