Ken Borland

Jake White was clearly having a bit of a laugh when he said his Bulls team might go to Newlands on Saturday and not kick at all in their Currie Cup opener against great rivals Western Province at Newlands, but the canny World Cup winning coach has already had the last laugh with the way he has turned things around at Loftus Versfeld.

White has always given a good press conference because he is engaging, loves a chat and he is not averse to playing a few mind games, especially before the big matches. In domestic terms, it seldom gets any bigger than the Bulls against the Stormers/Western Province, the famous north versus south derby.

Probably the most impressive feature though of White’s coaching at Loftus Versfeld has been the way the Bulls have shown the ability to play different kinds of rugby. The general expectation when he arrived in Pretoria was that the Bulls would play a conservative brand of rugby, going back to their old strengths of almost 10-man rugby: a powerful pack dominating the tight exchanges and then the halfbacks kicking the leather off the ball and the stuffing out of the opposition.

And while White has recently been giving hints that they will need to perfect the conservative approach once they start playing in the Pro16 competition in the miserable European winter, the Bulls backs have been playing with a new-found verve and sparkle. Sevens Springboks seem to be having a much bigger impact in XVs these days, but White has gone further than most in choosing three of them in his backline – Kurt-Lee Arendse, Stedman Gans and Cornal Hendricks.

White has never been a great publisher of his strategic thinking in the build-up to his campaigns, but there was barely a hint of Hendricks’ move to inside centre before it happened in the official opening friendly of the season, the Bulls’ game against the Sharks on SuperFan Saturday.

While many viewed the decision with trepidation – especially those used to the normal big bruisers who have played inside centre for the Bulls – White’s eye for talent and shrewd rugby brain has once again been proven because Hendricks has been a revelation in the No.12 jersey. He has been the key to the exciting backline play they have produced, while he has also shown no signs of vulnerability defensively.

The thing about White is that he is a true student of the game and his attention to detail is second to none; from prop to fullback, the coach will be very precise in what he wants from his players.

It has been remarkable how the Bulls have gone from the lower reaches of the 2020 Super Rugby log, winning just one of their six matches before Covid-19 struck, to the champion team in South Africa, but that’s what happens when hard work is backed up by tactical excellence and a coach who has the experience and nous to get the little things, that make such a big difference, right.

While White’s lateral thinking has taken him to the perimeters of rugby wisdom at times, he also puts great store in the importance of the basics. Little wonder then that in his recruitment and his selection thus far he has concentrated on building the most physically intimidating, formidable pack in South Africa. Their dominance of the gain-line has been key to everything else they have tried to do on the field.

There are many who wrote White, who will turn 57 in two weeks time,  off as one of the antiques of world coaching, but the value of having an experienced, well-travelled coach – he has also worked in Australia, France and Japan – has become very apparent at Loftus Versfeld.

A great forward-planner, White has also worked hard in his position of director of rugby to put together structures for the entire Bulls system. The art of coaching is not about gimmicks or fancy moves, but mastering the basics.

White seems to be doing that at Loftus Versfeld, and a powerful Bulls team is good news for South African rugby as a whole.

Lungi Ngidi is not just simply a fitter bowler these days, but a more skilful and canny one as well, and he said on Monday that he will go into the new season with confidence based on how he ended the 2019/20 campaign.

Having burst on to the scene in 2017, Ngidi has endured some frustrating injuries over the last couple of years. He has played just two Tests in the last two years and was only able to play four World Cup matches last year before breaking down again. But the 24-year-old came storming back in limited-overs cricket this year, taking 12 wickets in four ODIs and 13 wickets in six T20 Internationals, winning both the 50-over and 20-over Cricketer of the Year honours at the CSA Awards at the weekend.

“I put a lot of hard work in and I felt I had a point to prove. In ODI cricket I really backed myself and in white-ball cricket I was used as an impact player, trying to take wickets or defend runs, just be versatile and able to bowl in any situation. That has given me a lot of confidence. I know some guys are quicker than me, so I look to produce other skills at certain stages of the game.

“But I was very disappointed not to play more Test cricket and I definitely want to get back into that team. I believe I’ve improved my skills and the mental side of the game. I’m always striving to do well in all three formats, so doing well in Test cricket again is definitely a personal goal of mine. You have to be much more patient in Test cricket though,” Ngidi said in a teleconference on Monday.

While the towering, well-built Durbanite has always been an impressive physical specimen, there have been times when Ngidi has not exactly been a finely-honed athlete, which has also made him more injury-prone and more of a risk for five-day cricket. But he spent much of the second half of 2019 getting into peak physical shape and is certain that his conditioning will now stay at that level, the enforced Covid-19 break helping him to solidify that work over the last three months.

“I just need to continue the work we started last year, it’s about being consistent in training and eating healthily, it’s nothing extraordinary. Going forward, I feel like I’m now in a better position to do well in Test cricket. I feel now that with the conditioning block I’ve done, injury is something that’s now right at the back of the mind, it’s no longer a big deal. If I do happen to get injured again then so be it, I’ll just have to come back again,” Ngidi said.

In the meantime, Ngidi admits that it has been difficult to get his head around some of the protocols required for the return to training.

“It’s been different and difficult. You have to book sessions, train in small groups of no more than five and the bowlers have their own net and balls, gyms have to be sanitized before and after use. It feels weird as a team sport to be doing everything by yourself. We’re being tested regularly, temperatures taken, hand sanitizers everywhere and we have to fill out forms. It’s a whole process before you even bowl a ball but very necessary.”