Ken Borland

Jacques Nienaber and Rassie Erasmus, the duo who became heroes by turning a Springbok side at its lowest ebb into world champions, are now trending towards zero in some critics’ eyes, with fellow World Cup winning coach Jake White the latest to take a potshot.

White, now spearheading the Bulls’ renaissance as director of rugby at Loftus Versfeld, took a thinly veiled swipe at Nienaber’s lack of coaching experience in a column he wrote for the Rugby Pass website on Thursday.

Criticising the decision to make 14 changes to the Springbok starting XV and suffering an historic first defeat to Wales on home turf last weekend in Bloemfontein, White said Nienaber should have learnt not to experiment at Test level in that fashion at junior or club level.

“Making 14 changes obviously didn’t work for the Springboks and personally, I think Jacques Nienaber missed a trick,” White wrote. “There’s an expectation that you win every time you play in South African colours and the margins in Test rugby are incredibly small.

“I’m told his rationale for picking that second Test team was because he … didn’t want them to just be playing a dead rubber in the third Test. I’d say I don’t think there should ever be a dead rubber Test when you’re playing at home.

“The job of a national coach is to win Test matches. National coaches shouldn’t use Tests to see if players are good enough, thats what A sides or training is for.

“You’re not a national coach to learn lessons. You learn that at age-grade or club level – I mean that sincerely – there’s a reason people go through a system to become national coach,” White said.

The often-outspoken coach added that Wales will love the prospect of a winner-takes-all contest in Cape Town and the situation the Springboks have put themselves in.

“What I’m expecting on Saturday is massive amounts of pressure that he [Nienaber] didn’t need. Nienaber could have won the Series and now he’s created a real cauldron in Cape Town.

“It’s at sea level, and the Welsh will be boosted by the fact they’ve contested Tests on the highveld. Wales will come brimming with confidence. I’ve coached against them, and the one thing they don’t do is go away.

“Going back to selection, when Sir Gareth Edwards, one of the greatest players of all time, said it was a slap in the face, I can’t believe it wasn’t a real motivation for the Welsh team.

“Wales won’t make changes to a winning team. With consistency comes confidence. It’s backs to the wall for the Boks and if they don’t get the proper game going, they could lose the series,” White said.

If Jake White is the professor of rugby here in South Africa then Duane Vermeulen is surely the dean when it comes to wise counsel for the players. And the duo teamed up on Friday to plot the downfall of the Stormers in the United Rugby Championship final in Cape Town on Saturday.

Not only is Vermeulen, who played for White at the Bulls in 2020 and 2021, one of the most respected wise old heads in South African rugby, but he also has all the knowledge from last weekend’s semi-final when his Ulster team only just went down to the Stormers via a conversion after the hooter.

“Duane is coming to eat with me just now and then he will come to captain’s practice with me this afternoon,” White revealed on Friday. “I will show him our lineouts and he can explain how Ulster felt they stopped the Stormers maul so well last weekend.

“It’s going to be incredible input to have to help us close down their maul as the lineout drives are going to play a big part in the final.”

The fact that Vermeulen is also a Stormers legend and is now in the enemy camp is not going to sit well with the Cape Town faithful. But change is the one constant in life and how the Stormers adapt to the shifting strategic needs during the final will perhaps be the deciding factor in who becomes the first URC champions.

White, who named an unchanged team on Friday, is confident that the Bulls have the game-management skills to fit their tactics to the situation and the expected bad weather.

“This team has found a way to win in different ways, they are clever enough to work out how to win while they’re on the field,” White said.

“They have continually learnt lessons. Last time we were here against the Stormers we didn’t play well, our heads were in another place and the players admitted that. But finals rugby is different.

“We faced unbelievable conditions last week against Leinster, but we found a way to play. Against Connacht we experienced playing against the wind in the first half and in the second half.

“The coaches have done enough work, the scenario planning has all been done. What the players have learnt has given them confidence for the final,” White said.

The World Cup winning coach also said the much-vaunted Stormers scrum, which he admitted was one of the home team’s key strengths, would not be the advantage it should be because of the unstable turf of the Cape Town Stadium.

The canny coach made a plea to the referee, Andrew Brace, to not let the result be decided by a penalty for a collapsed scrum.

Bulls: Canan Moodie, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Cornal Hendricks, Harold Vorster, Madosh Tambwe, Chris Smith, Zak Burger; Elrigh Louw, Arno Botha, Marcell Coetzee (captain), Ruan Nortje, Walt Steenkamp, Mornay Smith, Johan Grobbelaar, Gerhard Steenekamp. Replacements – Bismarck du Plessis, Simphiwe Matanzima, Robert Hunt, Janko Swanepoel, WJ Steenkamp; Embrose Papier, Morne Steyn, David Kriel.

The domestic cricket season starts on Friday in Kimberley and the CSA Provincial T20 Knockout Competition should highlight some of the exciting young batting talent coming through, starting with the Western Province duo of Johnny Bird and Tony de Zorzi and the Central Gauteng Lions trio of Josh Richards, Mitchell van Buuren and Shane Dadswell.

The Lions and Western Province are the two First Division sides in the pool so they will be the favourites to advance, but hosts Northern Cape, who have a couple of thrilling strikers of their own in Beyers Swanepoel and Evan Jones, and South-Western Districts, led by Jean du Plessis and Hanno Kotze, should not be discounted.

The 23-year-old Dadswell, who is something of a Pukke legend for his big-hitting exploits for them, has joined the Wanderers fold along with two other young North-West products in Ruan Haasbroek and Louren Steenkamp. The Lions are coached by Wandile Gwavu, who steered the franchise team to last season’s T20 title in February and, even though only two players return from that final, he will not want to bend the knee to anybody this early in the season.

Ryan Rickelton is one of the returnees and he has been named as Central Gauteng’s captain for the T20 competition, being joined by Sisanda Magala, who will be the Lions’ key bowler.

Whereas the Lions franchise used to slowly strangle teams in T20 cricket with their brilliant spin duo of Bjorn Fortuin and Aaron Phangiso, that option is not available to Gwavu now and he will be looking to pace to blow opposition batsmen away. Magala has Lutho Sipamla to share the new ball with and the likes of left-arm quick Carmi le Toux, Tladi Bokako and Aya Myoli are in the squad for Kimberley.

Former Knights offie Tshepo Ntuli, who was born and raised in Kimberley, is the chief spinner in the squad and Gwavu could be looking to the likes of Haasbroek and Dadswell for some part-time overs.

The Lions and Western Province meet in the season opener on Friday, followed by Northern Cape versus South-Western Districts. The Pool A games conclude on Sunday with the top two teams going through to the quarterfinals.

Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber is hopeful that Duane Vermeulen and the Munster fire-pit duo of Damian de Allende and RG Snyman will recover in time from their mishaps and still be able to play in the series against the British and Irish Lions.
Nienaber confirmed on Wednesday that Vermeulen, man of the match in the 2019 World Cup final, underwent ankle surgery on Wednesday and the Springboks will adopt a wait-and-see attitude to their talismanic eighthman.
De Allende and Snyman both suffered burns during a petrol-and-fire accident in Ireland but barring further bad luck, Nienaber said he expects the centre and the lock, who provide the Springboks with much of their grunt, to be fit for the Lions series.
“Duane had an operation today because his ankle injury required surgery. We hope the surgery goes well and the rehab too, and the feedback we got was that he could take anywhere between five and 16 weeks to be ready, depending on the severity of the injury. And the doctor will only know that once he’s opened him up.
“Jesse Kriel actually had a similar injury just before the 2019 World Cup and he made a quick recovery. So we have discussed it and we don’t feel it’s necessary to get someone in for Duane at the moment. It will all depend on Duane’s rehab,” Nienaber said with the Springbok centre sitting alongside him.
While the details of the fire pit issue make it sound like De Allende and Snyman were up to mischief, Nienaber is certainly not about to have kittens over their behaviour.
“Accidents happen, preferably they don’t and it’s not ideal, but this could not have been controlled and it was not due to their negligence. In Ireland, you must understand, it rains more than it does here and when I wanted to have a wood fire over there, when I missed home, I also took a bit of petrol and put it on the wood otherwise the wood is too wet and won’t catch alight.
“Everyone does it over there and unfortunately the fire just ran up the canister, they then dropped it and the fire went on their legs. Fortunately the burns are just superficial and we have plans to get them in the mix, training, as quickly as possible. I’m optimistic they’ll be able to play against Georgia unless there is infection or they are not able to fly back soon,” Nienaber said.