Ken Borland

Since comfortably dispatching the Lions 48-21 at Ellis Park four weeks ago, the Bulls have struggled to put away the other two teams who did not make the Currie Cup semi-finals – the Pumas and the Cheetahs. But Arno Botha, captain for those three matches, says he does not believe his team have lost any momentum ahead of their knockout game against Western Province in Pretoria on Friday night.

The Bulls needed their set-piece prowess to squeeze past an adventurous, passionate Pumas side 33-26 in Nelspruit, and then struggled to an uninspired, messy 39-36 win over the fast-finishing Free State Cheetahs at Loftus Versfeld last weekend.

“I don’t think we have lost any momentum. We need to look at a couple of technical things, we had a few slip-ups, but individuals have put their hands up, myself included, for those. They are small things that are easy to fix, coming from just a momentary lack of effort or concentration. Rugby is never going to be easy every week – we would have lost if we thought that,” Botha said.

“We have a very strong group of leaders who are very relaxed, but we all take responsibility. Being defending champions doesn’t matter, we always want to win every game and our focus is really just on one thing and that’s this weekend’s semifinal. We don’t look too far ahead, but we’re in a good place and looking forward to what’s coming.”

The hero of last year’s Currie Cup final triumph with two tries, Botha has been very much the senior statesman in the pack, which is young and extraordinarily willing. And nothing much damages the confidence of the hugely exciting crop of youngsters currently at Loftus Versfeld.

“When I go back to when I was 21 or 22, we were not where this group of youngsters is now, they are so far in front of where we were back in 2012. They are already comfortable in the system, some of them have played in a Currie Cup final already. You’re no longer young as a rugby player as soon as you lift that trophy and we are all learning so much from each other,” the tough Springbok loose forward said.

Phepsi Buthelezi will return as captain for the Sharks in their Currie Cup rugby match against the Lions at Ellis Park on Saturday and he said a meeting with one of the leading referees had clarified for the squad that they have to improve their discipline and be better advertisers for a freeflowing game.

The Sharks will be looking to maintain their grip on second place against the last-placed Lions, following their victory over the Free State Cheetahs in Durban last weekend. But although the Cheetahs played with 14 men for most of the second half due to a red card, the Sharks kept them in the game with their own rampant ill-discipline, conceding far too many penalties and two yellow cards of their own in the tense closing stages.

That has to change, according to Buthelezi.

“We had Stuart Berry, who refereed our match against the Cheetahs, come chat to us and give us feedback. He told us that the way they are refereeing is to promote running rugby, which will be good for the product when people come back to stadiums. So that puts the defending team under the pump, but the biggest thing is our discipline, we can’t get sucked into silly errors.

“That just gave the Cheetahs life last weekend. So our main focus this week has been on keeping the number of penalties lower, that’s been a huge problem for us. It’s definitely a massive issue, something we’re constantly working on. We can’t afford to give away so many penalties, that made it hard for ourselves. The discipline issue is massive,” Buthelezi stressed.

Along with the in-form eighthman, halfbacks Grant Williams and Lionel Cronje, who played so well in the win over the Bulls two weeks ago, return to the starting line-up. Workhorse lock Le Roux Roets is going to take a break, allowing Gerbrandt Grobler to come in for his debut and Sharks coach Sean Everitt has rotated his hookers, with Dan Jooste starting and Kerron van Vuuren on the bench.

Although the Lions are out of contention for the semifinals, Buthelezi knows his team are going to have to put in a big effort to maintain their challenge for home-ground advantage in the playoffs.

“The Lions are obviously going to be desperate, they are a quality team who have just been unfortunate in terms of results, things just haven’t gone their way. We’re expecting them to have some main players back and they’ve been kicking a lot less lately, so that means lots of running and tackles. We are going to need to execute our game-plan, especially on attack, to put them under pressure,” Buthelezi said.

Sharks team – Anthony Volmink, Yaw Penxe, Jeremy Ward, Marius Louw, Thaakir Abrahams, Lionel Cronje, Grant Williams, Phepsi Buthelezi (c), Henco Venter, Dylan Richardson, Emile van Heerden, Gerbrandt Grobler, Lourens Adriaanse, Dan Jooste, Khwezi Mona. Bench: Kerron van Vuuren, Ntuthuko Mchunu, Wiehahn Herbst, Thembelani Bholi, Jeandre Labuschagne, Sanele Nohamba, Boeta Chamberlain, Murray Koster.

Springbok captain Siya Kolisi has no reason to massage the egos of the Argentina forwards so when he said on Friday that their pack was similar to the one he leads it was perhaps the ultimate compliment. And an indicator of how stiff a challenge the South African team face in their opening Rugby Championship match at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Saturday.

Argentina coach Mario Ledesma has said this week that taking on the Springbok pack is the toughest challenge his forwards will face, and Kolisi returned the compliment by saying the Pumas pack was similar. Pablo Matera and Facunda Isa are world-class loose forwards, locks Guido Petti and Marcos Kremer can mix it with the best and Julian Montoya and Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro provide plenty of fire in the front row.

“It’s a big challenge for us too against the Argentina forwards, they are a very strong pack who pride themselves on mauling and scrumming, and at the breakdown they all get involved. They are similar to us and that’s what makes it so difficult. So there is definitely mutual respect between the two packs. They are a completely different challenge to the Lions.

“So we have done no less preparation for them. We have to make sure we can get our own game going, if we get it right then it doesn’t matter who we are playing against. Obviously Argentina will want to prove a point. We know the challenge they’ll pose – a strong pack with their ball-carries and guys really getting into the breakdown,” Kolisi said on Friday.

Several new faces have been brought in to refresh the team after their huge exertions in the British and Irish Lions series and Kolisi said they have an important role to play in keeping the Springboks in the number one spot in the world rankings in what will be an incredibly tough Rugby Championship.

“The guys getting an opportunity to play and Joseph Dweba playing his first Test are very hungry and they really want to play, so they are going to bring energy. We want Joseph, who I know is very excited, Ox Nche and Wilco Louw to take charge in the scrum battle. And myself and Kwagga Smith have played together quite a bit and we work well together.

“The goal after winning the World Cup was to maintain our number one ranking and consistently stay there. We don’t want to be once-off winners. We want to win more games and trophies, that’s how we will keep being number one. The coaches give us simple messages to play simple rugby, they want us to focus on the stuff that does not require talent and I love it,’ Kolisi said.

Captain Siya Kolisi and talismanic lock Eben Etzebeth are the players to whom the saying ‘no rest for the wicked’ might be applied as they have been tasked with fronting up again for the Springboks in the opening Rugby Championship Test against Argentina at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Saturday.

They are the only players who started all three of the brutal Tests against the British and Irish Lions who are not getting a breather this weekend, and it is a credit to their superb, wickedly good, conditioning and mental strength that they are ready to go again on Saturday.

When coach Jacques Nienaber announced the team on Tuesday, he made it clear that the 10 changes made to the starting XV, and two more on the bench, were due to the need to rotate players in order to give them sufficient rest and game-time.

“We mean zero disrespect to Argentina, but our challenge is we have five big Tests on the trot, on successive weekends, and we have to look at player welfare more than anything else. Our first goal is always to win, but secondly we want to create squad depth. A lot of various things go into deciding who to rotate, and the guys not playing are not resting, they still play a massive role in preparation,” Nienaber said.

So why are Kolisi and Etzebeth, a duo who put their bodies on the line more than most against the Lions, still playing?

“Winning is what is required at the moment and if guys are physically and mentally ready to play then they will play. We also want to ensure continuity of leadership, we didn’t want to upset the applecart by taking too many leaders out. We look at player welfare wherever we can, but if a player is able to play six or seven Tests on the trot then we will choose him,” Nienaber explained.

The Springbok management have ensured that wherever they have brought in fresh faces, they have experienced back-up close by. A new-look front row of Ox Nche, debutant Jospeh Dweba and Wilco Louw has the bomb squad front row of Trevor Nyakane, Malcolm Marx and Vincent Koch standing by on the bench; Etzebeth and Lood de Jager are a seasoned lock pairing and a new-look backline will be guided by wise old heads in Elton Jantjies, Francois Steyn and Jesse Kriel.

“The starting front row has not played for a while and it is Joseph’s first Test and Wilco was with us in 2018 so he’s a new old guy coming back. But there’s lots of consistency in the second row and the front row that will come off the bench. And it’s a new backline but a guy like Jesse with 47 caps will take over as defence captain from Lukhanyo Am, not to mention Frans, and Elton has consistently been part of our squad since 2018.

“There’s a good culture in the group in that guys are disappointed not to get chosen but they never get negative, they know they have another role in the team. We have had a group of players who have contributed for weeks, every day, but have not had the chance to play, but they don’t get negative. A guy like Elton has been outstanding in that regard,” Nienaber said.

Springbok team: Damian Willemse, Sbu Nkosi, Jesse Kriel, Francois Steyn, Aphelele Fassi, Elton Jantjies (vice-captain), Cobus Reinach, Jasper Wiese, Kwagga Smith, Siya Kolisi (captain), Lood de Jager, Eben Etzebeth, Wilco Louw, Joseph Dweba, Ox Nché. Bench – Malcolm Marx, Trevor Nyakane, Vincent Koch, Marvin Orie, Marco van Staden, Dan du Preez, Herschel Jantjies, Morné Steyn.