Ken Borland

Jake White has taken the mickey before when it comes to playing mind games against the opposition and the veteran coach was at it again on Thursday as he named his Bulls team for their big derby match against the Stormers in Pretoria on Saturday.

While White made just one change to his starting XV with Springbok tighthead Trevor Nyakane returning to the No.3 jersey to set up a crunch clash with Steven Kitshoff, he took a swipe at the Stormers and suggestions that they would be fielding a team with six forwards on the bench and just two backs.

“It will make a massive difference that the Stormers are missing two really good players in Siya Kolisi and Pieter-Steph du Toit. But the fact that they are coming to Loftus with like 14 locks suggests they’re going to go with six forwards and two backs on the bench, which I haven’t seen before from any Western Province team.

“When did the Stormers ever need six forwards against the Bulls before? The Stormers used to be known for running the ball but now they’re going to play six forwards off the bench and people are asking the Bulls if we’re going to kick on them?! But rugby hasn’t changed, it’s the forwards who always win the game for you and this will be one of those games where the forward battle is really important,” White said on Thursday.

The 56-year-old White certainly subscribes to the theory that a great tighthead prop is the starting point for any successful team and Nyakane is the sort of sturdy oak who can give them set-piece stability, especially when the Stormers boast a loosehead that is as wonderful a scrummager as Kitshoff. Not to mention South Africa’s first-choice tighthead Frans Malherbe and strong-scrummaging hooker Bongi Mbonambi.

“Trevor can’t play every minute of every game and he added a lot of value off the bench last weekend. But if he can have a good game against the best player in the Stormers squad and we can play with exactly the same intensity then hopefully we can build on the win against the Sharks. We know we have to match them in the scrums because the Stormers use that to get out of their half.

“According to John Dobson, Siya and Pieter-Steph are not the best players he has ever coached – that’s Kitshoff, so I felt it was only fair that we play Trevor against him. The Stormers pride themselves on their scrum and maul, but they haven’t played against this group of players and it will be good to see how they cope with us,” White said with typical bravado.

Bulls team:  David Kriel, Travis Ismaiel, Stedman Gans, Cornal Hendricks, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Morné Steyn, Ivan van Zyl, Duane Vermeulen (C), Elrigh Louw, Marco van Staden, Ruan Nortje, Jason Jenkins, Trevor Nyakane, Johan Grobbelaar, Jacques van Rooyen. Replacements – Joe van Zyl, Gerhard Steenekamp, Marcel van der Merwe, Sintu Manjezi, Nizaam Carr, Embrose Papier, Chris Smith, Marco Jansen van Vuren.

Cricket South Africa announced on Tuesday the big news that both festive season Tests this season will be played on the Highveld, but what their press release left undisclosed was the reason for the New Years Test being shifted from Cape Town for the first time in more than a century.

Newlands has been the host every time South Africa has played a New Years Test at home since January 1, 1914, when England clinched their 5-match series with a 91-run win in the third Test, at the Old Wanderers.

But this Christmas, due to Covid-19 and the need to play in a biobubble, Sri Lanka will play the Boxing Day Test against the Proteas at SuperSport Park in Centurion starting on December 26, with the New Years Test beginning on December 3 at the new Wanderers Stadium.

The costs of setting up a biobubble for just one game in Cape Town were deemed to be too much, with Sri Lanka and the Proteas able to stay in the same place for their two Tests over the festive season, which makes financial sense, especially with no spectators expected to be allowed to attend. England are paying for a substantial portion of the biobubble for their white-ball series against South Africa in a month’s time, and they insisted on staying in Cape Town.

“It’s great for our brand and for our sponsors, so it’s a really great thing to be the host from that point of view, but we are sad that we won’t see any fans here at the Wanderers. We are thankful and excited that Cricket South Africa have chosen us as hosts. It certainly wasn’t something we planned for at the start of the year.

“But with the Boxing Day Test happening at Centurion, it means the players can stay and travel from the same place, plus Cape Town will have the England series. If even a reduced number of fans are given the go-ahead to attend then we will be ready to go. We’ve geared ourselves to be ready for whenever fans can return and all safety measures are already in place,” Jono Leaf-Wright, the CEO of the Central Gauteng Lions, told The Citizen on Tuesday.

While only the Proteas fixtures up to that second Test against Sri Lanka were confirmed on Tuesday, that is certainly not the sum total of their summer. CSA revealed that Australia and Pakistan would also feature during the summer.

Australia will arrive for three Tests in February/March, which will undoubtedly be the pinnacle of the season, while a Pakistan tour comprising three ODIs and three T20s will end the summer.

South Africa are also scheduled to tour Pakistan in January for the first time since 2007, with CSA saying a delegation leaves for the subcontinental country at the weekend to do a security assessment.

Fixtures

England tour – Friday, 27 November (18h00):1^st T20I Newlands, Cape Town; Sunday, 29 November (14h30):2^nd T20I Boland Park, Paarl; Tuesday, 1 December (18h00): 3^rd T20I Newlands, Cape Town; Friday, 4 December (13h00): 1^st ODI Newlands, Cape Town; Sunday, 6 December (10h00): 2^nd ODI Boland Park, Paarl; Wednesday, 9 December (13h00): 3^rd ODI Newlands, Cape Town.

Sri Lanka Tour – Saturday, 26-30 December (10h00): 1^st Test SuperSport Park, Centurion; Sunday, 3-7 January (10h00):2^nd Test Imperial Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg.

Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen said he was terribly disappointed by their narrow defeat to the Sharks in Durban but proud of his team for the character they showed and the big improvement in competitiveness compared to their dismal start to the year.

The Lions went down 16-19 to the Sharks in their opening Super Rugby Unlocked match, but they turned down a penalty that could have given them a draw to rather go for a win, only to be penalised at a five-metre scrum after the hooter. But having won just one of their six games in the regular Super Rugby season, to then push the form side in South Africa all the way to the end was heartening, especially after a poor start in which the Sharks led 13-0 after half-an-hour.

“Obviously we’re bitterly disappointed to lose, but the character and fight for the whole 80 minutes the guys showed was unbelievable. So I’m happy with the effort but sad about the result. The Sharks obviously started well and put us under pressure, but we had a bit of hope and momentum going into the second half, we felt that shift.

“Being direct had started to work and the Sharks live on turnovers so that’s what we wanted to negate. So there were a lot of positives, especially the good fight and character the guys showed for 80 minutes, and a lot of individuals put up their hands. We want to challenge the players to adapt to different opponents and we had a specific plan for tonight,” Van Rooyen said after the game.

Lions captain Elton Jantjies also pointed to the big improvement in performance by the side.

“Tonight was probably a 7/10 for us in terms of performance, and that’s coming from a 3/10. So we will just keep training hard and believe, to only lose by three points here shows that we are doing the right things,” Jantjies said.

Neither Van Rooyen nor Jantjies were throwing their toys out of the pram over the final penalty at the scrum that cost the Lions. The Sharks had been under pressure for most of the game in that set-piece, but had also won a couple of penalties earlier in the match.

“The Sharks obviously have a quality front row and I felt we handled them adequately. Obviously there are one or two scrums we will look at again, but generally I felt the scrums went well. The scrum was a good battle, some of them we dominated, but there’s still a bit for us to work on,” Van Rooyen said.

“Both sides had opportunities to win the game and we scored one try each. I had a penalty against the posts, but that happens in rugby. There were other moments at the set-piece that were crucial as well,” Jantjies said.

Jake White has always had an attachment to big, physical players, but the new Bulls coach was most excited about the attacking flair on offer from the several whippets in his squad when he named his roster on Thursday for their SuperFan Saturday match against the Sharks at Loftus Versfeld.

The squad includes two Springbok Sevens players in Stedman Gans and Kurt-Lee Arendse, and there are other players like Gio Aplon and Jade Stighling who make up for their lack of size with the size of their talent.

“I’m told I usually only like big okes and that we’re only going to play like the Bulls used to,” White said ironically, “but these are little guys with lots of skill and pace and I’m really excited about them. Watch this space!”

The other selections that the former World Cup winning Springbok coach seemed particularly excited about where that of 19-year-old loosehead prop Jan-Hendrik Wessels, who is 6’3 and 120kg and spent a season with Clermont Auvergne in France, and, at the other end of the spectrum, veteran flyhalf Morne Steyn.

“Jan-Hendrik reminds me of Os du Randt and he will be a Springbok, there’s no doubt about it. We need to give him a chance to develop and playing with Springboks this weekend and learning about senior rugby will be a great experience for him before the U21 tournament starts next week,” White said of the former SA Schools and Grey College star.

“I’ve never worked with Morne Steyn before and when he was flourishing in South Africa, I was overseas. I did watch his progression at Stade Francais, where he won championships with them, and he’s just an unbelievable team guy, full of energy. He’s a lot more athletic than people think and the older he’s got, the more he understands what he can and cannot do. He looks after himself, he’s very fit and he’s a great role-model. There’s no doubt he still has a massive role to play at the Bulls and he’s exactly the sort of general we need,” White said of the 36-year-old, who has 66 Test caps and three Super Rugby titles to his name.

The Bulls will be without the exciting front row expertise of tighthead Marcel van der Merwe, loosehead Lizo Gqoboka and hooker Johan Grobbelaar, who are all unfit for play at the moment. Grobbelaar has had a particularly unfortunate time, having his appendix out seven weeks ago and then catching the Covid-19 virus, but White said the 22-year-old will be back in the fray soon.

Given the recent history of underperformance at Loftus Versfeld, the maiden season under White will see the expectation levels start at a high level. But the coach stressed that the weekend’s hit-out is not so much about the result as getting the combinations right for when the Super Rugby local competition starts and also ensuring they develop some continuity.

“We have lots of options on Saturday, but we’ll probably start with the ‘team’, see how the combinations go and then try out others in a match situation. So far we’ve been running moves with both teams knowing the plays against each other, so it will be nice to try them when the opposition does not know them. But the most important thing is the combinations.

“Saturday is all about continuity as well, especially if we lose some players to the Springboks, who have a trial next week. It’s important to remember we finished last in Super Rugby and seventh in the Currie Cup, we’ve won one out of six games this year. So we can only go up, but we do still have expectations on us. But I think the pressure is on everybody, the Sharks have been front-runners and far above everyone else,” White said.

Squad – Gio Aplon, Jade Stighling, Cornal Hendricks, Stedman Gans, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Clinton Swart, David Kriel, Travis Ismaiel, Stravino Jacobs, Morne Steyn, Chris Smith, Ivan van Zyl, Embrose Papier, Marco Jansen van Vuren, Duane Vermeulen, Nizaam Carr, Tim Agaba, Arno Botha, Muller Uys, Marco van Staden, Ruan Nortje, Juandre Kruger, Jason Jenkins, Sintu Manjezi, Trevor Nyakane, Mornay Smith, Corniel Els, Schalk Erasmus, Jacques van Rooyen, Jan-Hendrik Wessels.