Ken Borland

A young Bulls side upstaged the SA A team by beating them 17-14 in Cape Town on Saturday in the Springbok squad’s final preparation for the British and Irish Lions series, with the national squad putting in a performance that would have rapidly aged coach Jacques Nienaber as they showed a worrying lack of forward dominance and the backline was also not particularly clinical.

SA A led 14-0 at halftime through two tries against the run of play, but the second half was a tedious affair until the 66^th minute when flyhalf Johan Goosen sparked a sensational Bulls comeback.

The first try came after a superb break from a midfield ruck by Goosen, who then passed inside for impressive replacement scrumhalf Keegan Johannes to score. Just a minute later, Goosen, who last played for the Springboks five years ago, took on the defensive line on his own 22m line and his neat offload to Muller Uys saw the flank burst clear. Uys then went wide to fullback FC du Plessis, whose excellent kick infield found hooker Johan Grobbelaar up in support and he gathered and scored.

Goosen converted both tries before leaving the field, replaced by Chris Smith. With five minutes remaining, it was Smith who kicked a brilliant penalty from the halfway line to seal a win for the ages for the Bulls.

SA A bashed away at the Bulls line in the closing stages, but Smith and Nizaam Carr held up prop Vincent Koch over the line.

The SA A side spent most of the first half defending in their own half, but they did manage to break the chains twice, leading to tries in the 12^th and 38^th minutes.

First scrumhalf Cobus Reinach, probably the best player in the SA A team on the day, ran from a ruck, slipped through the defensive line, and then found fullback Aphelele Fassi running a good supporting line to score the try.

The second try came after a lovely kick into the corner by Fassi put SA A on attack. Prop Thomas du Toit was stopped just short of the line, but Wandisile Simelane was able to dive over an open tryline to score.

Simelane had earlier been yellow-carded for being miles offsides five metres from his line as SA A conceded a strong of penalties. But the Bulls were unable to capitalise on several first-half opportunities due to a lack of composure with the ball. They also conceded several turnovers.

But the SA A side just never had a decent platform as the young Bulls pack stepped up superbly. Their lineouts were especially poor.

The only players to have advanced their Springbok cause were Reinach, eighthman Kwagga Smith and Fassi, while Elton Jantjies had a solid game at flyhalf.

But it is now clear that a couple of injuries to the Springboks to key personnel and they will be vulnerable against the British and Irish Lions.

Scorers

SA A: Tries – Aphelele Fassi, Wandisile Simelane. Conversions – Elton Jantjies (2).

Bulls: Tries – Keegan Johannes, Johan Grobbelaar. Conversions – Johan Goosen (2). Penalty – Chris Smith.

Bulls coach Jake White said on Friday that new flyhalf Johan Goosen has been in such good nick in training over the last couple of weeks that he wouldn’t be surprised if the Springboks snatch him from Pretoria soon after the match against the SA A team in Cape Town on Saturday.

Goosen returned to South Africa in 2018 in rather bizarre and unseemly fashion as he ‘retired’ in order to take up a lucrative new contract with Montpellier, who then had to let him go as his former club, Racing 92, understandably took legal action.

His first match back on South African soil on Saturday will be watched with great interest and White said he has no doubts the 28-year-old will be adding to his 13 Test caps soon.

“Johan has the opportunity to show that he can play at that level again. There is nothing he can’t do – he has pace, skill, he can play flat to the line, he can pass and kick and be very physical. I’d be incredibly surprised if he does not play for the Springboks again, in fact I’m surprised he hasn’t played more than 50 Tests already. He’s helluva keen and he’s experienced.

“I have no doubt he is the real deal. Having never coached him on the field before, I’ve seen he can play from No.10 to No.15 as well as anyone. I’ve been blown away by how good he is and he has changed the way we can coach the team. We can use the skills he executes better than anyone else to do different things with the team now. He’s a phenomenal rugby player,” White enthused.

Unfortunately, another returning Springbok with a big reputation, Marcell Coetzee, will miss the tie because he is still working his way through the Covid Return-to-Play protocols.

White said he had decided to stick with the usual process for Covid-positive players to return and not try to speed things up with the loose forward because he knows he is going to have to rely on Coetzee as the Bulls look to defend their Currie Cup title.

Instead, another Springbok, Nizaam Carr, will captain the team on the openside flank.

In terms of other potential Springboks for later in the season, all eyes will be on Cornal Hendricks at inside centre as he goes up against South Africa’s best No.12 – Damian de Allende.

Bulls team – FC du Plessis, Marco Jansen van Vuren, Harold Vorster, Cornal Hendricks, Stravino Jacobs, Johan Goosen, Zak Burger, WJ Steenkamp, Muller Uys, Nizaam Carr (Capt), Ruan Nortje, Walt Steenkamp, Jacques van Rooyen, Schalk Erasmus, Simphiwe Matanzima. Bench: Johan Grobbelaar, Gerhard Steenekamp, Mornay Smith, Janko Swanepoel, Arno Botha, Keagan Johannes, Chris Smith, David Kriel, Jan-Hendrik Wessels.

Saturday’s hastily arranged match for the SA A team against the Bulls in Cape Town is the last available cab for those members of the Springbok squad who are looking to get a ride into the squad for the first Test next weekend against the British and Irish Lions, which is why coach Jacques Nienaber is expecting plenty of intensity and even desperation from his team.

Realistically, most of this SA A side have a chance of featuring in the Test 23, especially with the Springboks still waiting on several players to clear their Covid Return-to-Play protocols. Tighthead prop Vincent Koch, flank Marco van Staden and flyhalf Elton Jantjies are probably the players with the most to gain as strong performances by them could see them into the starting XV because Frans Malherbe, Siya Kolisi and Handre Pollard have Covid question marks over their names.

“The main purpose of this match is to get more game time and to get good intensity, as well as allowing the players to stake a claim, we want to give everyone fair chance. We wanted three games for all that and we’ve been lucky enough to get that thanks to the Bulls. On Wednesday the team had a different goal, but Saturday will be a big chance for guys to stake a claim for a possible Test start.

“That’s the desperation that drives this group and playing against the top franchise in South Africa should be a phenomenal test. The Bulls have an unbelievable coaching structure and we know they will leave no stone unturned to give us a proper hit out. The fact that it is a unique game – I can’t remember in my time SA A playing against a franchise – adds to how huge it will be,” Nienaber said on Friday.

The Springbok squad just keeps getting bigger as it becomes a vessel for more and more back-up players due to the number of Covid infections, and tighthead prop Wilco Louw, who last played for South Africa before the World Cup in 2019, has made his way back into the picture and will play off the bench against the Bulls.

“Wilco has joined us because of the Covid infections. When a player tests positive, they have to spend 10 days in isolation, but then there’s the Return-to-Play Protocol which has markers the player has to pass like with concussion. So it’s basically 16-17 days before they’re back in the mix, so we still have some players unavailable.

“We only had four props so if we had one more injury then we would not be able to field a front row and would have to forfeit the match. Then there are guys like Dan du Preez for example, who still have Covid and have not been able to play in any of the warm-up games. For a player like that to now make the Test side, they would have to have had extensive time in our system,” Nienaber explained.

SA A team – Aphelele Fassi, Yaw Penxe, Wandisile Simelane, Damian de Allende, Rosko Specman, Elton Jantjies, Cobus Reinach, Kwagga Smith, Rynhardt Elstadt, Marco van Staden, Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg, Jean-Luc du Preez, Vincent Koch, Joseph Dweba, Coenie Oosthuizen. Bench: Thomas du Toit, Fez Mbatha, Wilco Louw, Jasper Wiese, Sanele Nohamba, Sbu Nkosi, Jesse Kriel, Damian Willemse, Lizo Gqoboka.

When the going gets tough, this Springbok team says they don’t make excuses, they find solutions. And that attitude was much in evidence in the third Test against the British and Irish Lions in Cape Town at the weekend when, despite not producing anything close to their best rugby, they simply refused to lose, doing what had to be done to secure a nailbiting 19-16 win and clinch the series.

With Rassie Erasmus still facing a misconduct charge from WorldRugby over his video analysis of officiating mistakes in the first Test loss, the churlish will say the director of rugby makes the Springboks’ excuses for them, but only the most biased would not have at least some grudging respect for the sheer determination and heroism this Springbok team has shown.

And speaking of heroes, the feats of wing Cheslin Kolbe and replacement flyhalf Morne Steyn were pulled straight from the pages of superhero comic books.

Kolbe scored the crucial try to overturn a 10-6 deficit, once again unveiling his superpower ability to simply vanish from the grasp of tacklers thanks to those incredibly feet of his.

And then Steyn, who had won the 2009 series with his long-range penalty, came on after 64 minutes, a 37-year-old playing his first Test since 2016. It was certainly a gamble, replacing the Springboks’ general, Handre Pollard, who has enjoyed an outstanding series but things were not going that well with his boot.

Incredibly, history repeated itself 12 years later as Steyn kicked two penalties, including the match-winning one in the 78^th minute, leaving one to wonder who exactly writes his scripts?!

“I had my head between my legs when Morne kicked, I just listened, I did not see it,” Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber admitted. “I’m really happy for him, it’s a fairytale.

“In the last five weeks, everybody had challenges, a lot of us got Covid and we lost a whole week of training. But the positive thing about this team is that they have no time for excuses, we knew we had to move on and make another plan. Those were the cards we were dealt with, they said ‘unfortunately that’s where we are, we have to move on and find a solution’,” Nienaber added.

For captain Siya Kolisi, the overriding emption was great pride in the team he has led magnificently.

“I honestly can’t explain in words what it means to us as a group to win the series. Coming from isolation, we all agreed that we would never make excuses, that’s not what South Africans are made of. When you step out on to the field, you agree that you are ready to play. That’s what I love about this team, we don’t make excuses, we find solutions,” Kolisi said.

Lock Eben Etzebeth and Steyn were the star players put up by the Springboks for media duties after the gripping match, and it turned out a friendly chat between the two at the start of the day had almost been prophetic.

“We expected it to be a close contest and we always knew that the Lions would come with a massive effort. I had breakfast with Morne and I said that it might come down to him winning the series again with a kick. He said he hoped we were a bit further ahead if he came on.

“It doesn’t matter how we won, just to get the victory is massive for us. We were able to get over the final hurdle. Apart from Morne, the rest of us knew we only have one chance to win a Lions series and we knew it was our last 80 minutes to do it. What happened is absolutely unbelievable and all credit to him,” Etzebeth, a talismanic figure in the Springbok pack all series, said.

“Just to be part of this series 12 years later was amazing and then to get on the field and then to have that kick. It was in a similar position to 2009, just a bit closer for these old legs, 54 metres then and this one was about 35 metres. For a kicker, these special occasions are why you put in all the hard work. You always dream of making a kick to win a series or a championship. All glory to God for giving me the chance to do it again.

“But credit to the whole team for building up to that moment on the field, their work softened them up. It was not our best performance but it doesn’t matter how you win. And thanks to Eben for that pep talk at breakfast!” Steyn said.