Ken Borland

Duane Vermeulen may have enjoyed the facilities of a fancy suite at the hotel at Loftus Park, but it was no place for a family to live and this is believed to be the main reason the Springbok eighthman decided to leave the Bulls after just one year.

Vermeulen, who played a key role in turning around the fortunes of the Bulls, leading them to their first Currie Cup title since 2009 in January, has decided to continue his epic career at Ulster in Northern Ireland. While it is sad news for the Bulls, they do have the consolation of the fantastic environment the Springbok talisman helped build and the knowledge that they have an eighthman star-of-the-future to replace him in Elrigh Louw.

“Duane’s contract with us ended on August 31 and we had plenty of chats about his plans and wanted him for another season. But he has been commuting from Cape Town, staying in the hotel, and that is not ideal when you’re trying to raise a family. His family has been back in Cape Town, he’s 35 years old now and it’s a good deal he’s been offered by Ulster.

“It make sense for Duane and his family to take up that offer. But he adds immense value wherever he goes and the stability we have in our squad now is partly due to him. He has really added to our culture and a winning environment here,” Bulls CEO Edgar Rathbone told Saturday Citizen on Friday.

Vermeulen was in top-class form before he suffered a twisted ankle that required surgery in early June. It meant he missed the series against the British and Irish Lions, a rare gap in his Springbok CV, and he only made a return to the national team, without having his usual influence, last weekend against Australia.

But the fact that the Nelspuit product has signed a two-year contract with Ulster suggests he is looking to still be a part of the Springbok set-up when they go for a second-successive title at the 2023 World Cup in France.

Meanwhile, the Bulls announced their touring squad for the United Rugby Championship that starts next weekend with a visit to Leinster, consistent European powerhouses with a handful of trophies since 2008/9. The Bulls will be taking a half-dozen high-quality loose forwards overseas with them – Arno Botha, Marcell Coetzee, Jacques du Plessis, Muller Uys, Louw and WJ Steenkamp.

Not making use of the facilities at your disposal is one of the serious crimes of the sporting world, and Proteas captain Heinrich Klaasen said his team wasting a handful of their 20 overs cost them the match in the first T20 against Pakistan and is what they have to put right in the games on Saturday and Sunday in Lahore if they are to win the series.

South Africa fell three runs short in the first T20 in a gutsy effort, but they would have expected to chase down 170 on a good pitch for batting. But having been 51 without loss after the six powerplay overs, the Proteas then lost their way, but the next six overs saw them slip to 83 for three, leaving them to score 87 runs off 48 balls. Which was too steep a task.

“I thought that Pakistan were 10 runs short and I was very happy with our effort in the field and to be chasing 170. But it was just four or five overs in the middle where we made life very difficult for ourselves. Usman Qadir bowled two overs and had two for four in that middle phase and that put us on the back foot in the middle overs.

“Hopefully we can lift our intensity in that middle phase and then we’ll get over the line. Our standards are high, we don’t like losing although we played a good game of cricket. One or two bowling things didn’t go to plan, we need to reassess one or two overs, but I was generally very pleased with how the bowling went, and I was quite pleased with the fielding, but not the two dropped catches at the end,” Klaasen said after his first match as Proteas captain.

Among the positives in the batting was that Janneman Malan and Reeza Hendricks came off as an opening pair. Malan blazed his way to 44 off 29 balls before becoming Qadir’s first victim as he was made to look silly by a superb delivery, while Hendricks batted as the anchor and made it through to the 18^th over, scoring 54 off 42 balls. Some critics have described Hendricks’ innings as being too slow, but with wickets tumbling at the other end he obviously saw his role as being to bat for as long as possible until someone could form another partnership with him.

“I was very happy with the start and Reeza only faced 12 balls in the first seven overs, so Janneman was always going to score more quickly. Unfortunately Janneman got out when we could have completely taken the powerplay away from them, then we lost the game between overs seven and 10. We didn’t do too badly tonight, but we just slipped up in the crucial moments.

“But that’s part of the learning process and the key this weekend is to be patient and take control of those moments. Hopefully the new guys will use the opportunity to showcase their skills, we need to be adaptable and we will chop and change a few things,” Klaasen said.