Ken Borland

Bulls coach Jake White seemed afraid before their match against Leinster that his team and their fans might not realise how daunting their game against the dominant side in the Pro14 competition was going to be, and the reality of what awaits South Africa’s champions was rammed home as they were hammered 31-3 at the Aviva Stadium.

On a miserable day for South African rugby on which the Springboks, Stormers, Bulls and Sharks all lost, the quality, tempo and precision of the European game was on full display, even though those sides are just starting their season. And Leinster look set to be Europe’s flagbearers once again, judging by their polished performance against the Bulls.

“I’m not that disappointed in our performance to be honest. Leinster are the benchmark in European rugby and I’m a realist. That’s the kind of pressure we’re going to have to get used to week in, week out. To give some perspective, Jamison Gibson-Park comes off the bench at scrumhalf and he’s an international. We need to get to that level of skill and depth.

“We need to be realistic where we are and where Leinster are currently. We can’t be down, it was a great learning opportunity even though it wasn’t pleasant. Leinster have Test players who have been together for a long time, guys with 30 Test caps against players with 30 Currie Cup caps. The bottom line is that they exposed us and they have done it to some of the best sides in Europe,” White said.

The Bulls started the match in terrible fashion, trailing 17-0 after just 13 minutes, but they had opportunities to close the gap in the first half, which they failed to take.

“We kicked direct into touch at the start, we gave away a penalty at the scrum, a lineout and then we’re 10-0 down in the first seven minutes. We were under pressure the whole time and it could easily have become 50 points as they ran away with it. But if we could have gone to 10-17 then we would have been a bit more confident.

“I’m proud of how we stuck into it, we showed our resilience and we looked like we held our own in certain passages. That’s the positive – for long periods we stayed competitive. But the challenge is not to get down on ourselves, we have to back ourselves even though things worked easily in the Currie Cup, but we weren’t playing against international opposition,” White said.

There’s no guarantee that veteran Springbok Ruan Pienaar will enjoy sweet success upon his return to the Sharks team for the first time in 11 years, but what he will certainly bring is the right approach to the game when the KwaZulu-Natalians begin their United Rugby Championship journey with a daunting match against Munster, one of the biggest teams in Europe, in Limerick on Saturday.

Pienaar slots straight back into the starting scrumhalf position for the Sharks and, with a relatively inexperienced flyhalf in Boeta Chamberlain named on Thursday, it is the veteran of 88 Tests who will no doubt be calling the shots in terms of game-management. The 37-year-old has also played plenty of rugby at flyhalf so being the general is nothing new to him, and he also spent seven years playing for another Irish club, Ulster.

“Ruan obviously brings a lot of experience, which is important when you have a young flyhalf like Boeta. He has been training very well, he is a leader in his own right and he knows these conditions and the teams we will be playing against. He has an understanding of what needs to be done to win here, and is presence is massive for us.

“You just see the quality of his training day-in, day-out, and he has settled in very easily because we play a similar style to the Free State Cheetahs, so the transition has been seamless. We need to manage our game better and be more disciplined in that regard, and Ruan understands that. He has good awareness of how to manage a game,” coach Sean Everitt said on Thursday.

The arrival of Pienaar on loan means a top-class talent like Sanele Nohamba is on the bench, but Everitt is clearly expecting a tight, almost Test-like tussle before the Sharks can hopefully use their pace and expansive game later in the match. That is also why Curwin Bosch continues to be preferred at fullback, providing a big boot from the back, and Chamberlain, a 22-year-old who is a tough cookie and has shown a commanding all-round game before, gets the No.10 jersey.

“Curwin is at fullback because of the way Munster play, we’re looking for a kicking option at 15, where we used to have Aphelele Fassi and his big left boot, as well as Andre Esterhuizen at 12. Curwin also has the ability to counter-attack well from the back. Munster defend really well and have a strong kicking game, they want to trap you into playing in the wrong areas.

“Boeta is an all-round player, he has a good skill-set, kicks well, distributes nicely and is good on the counter-attack. We’ve been blooding him slowly, but he started against the Hurricanes in Super Rugby and did very well, plus he had a very good Preparation Series and was excellent when we beat the Bulls at Kings Park in the wet in March. We’ve surrounded him with experience and he’s a guy for the future who can turn a game on his day,” Everitt said.

Sharks – Curwin Bosch, Yaw Penxe, Werner Kok, Marius Louw, Thaakir Abrahams, Boeta Chamberlain, Ruan Pienaar, Phepsi Buthelezi (c), Henco Venter, Dylan Richardson, Gerbrandt Grobler, Le Roux Roets, Thomas du Toit (v/c), Kerron van Vuuren, Khwezi Mona. Bench: Fez Mbatha, Ntuthuko Mchunu, Khutha Mchunu, Mpilo Gumede, Ruben van Heerden, Hyron Andrews, Sanele Nohamba, Jeremy Ward.

It seems a lot of people owe Faf de Klerk an apology. We are all used to seeing the blonde-haired scrumhalf dashing all over the field looking more like a loose cannon than a guided missile at times, but you have to hand it to the 29-year-old for knowing the laws of the game better than most.

And that includes Matthew Carley, the referee for last weekend’s match between the Wallabies and the Springboks who gave De Klerk a yellow card for playing the halfback from an offsides position at a ruck inside the South African 22. Incorrectly as it turns out.

That’s according to no less of an authority than Nigel Owens, the man who has refereed more Tests than anyone else. On this week’s Whistle Watch video for WorldRugby (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsmXBuDGEps), Owens said because De Klerk was bound in the ruck, on his feet and did not attempt to slap the ball out of opposite number Nic White’s hands but just played his arm, he was onsides and should not have been deemed to have done anything illegal.

“My yellow card was disappointing and it put the team under pressure, but I honestly don’t think it was a yellow card. I clearly played the arm and not the ball, which to my understanding is fine and I would do the same thing again. The same with Willie le Roux’s yellow card, he was trying to intercept the pass, it’s not as if we were doing anything stupid.

“I think our discipline has actually been pretty decent, there have just been a few errors when we have gone off-system. We just need to be a bit more sharp and in the referee’s head a bit more. We know we can’t concede a lot of penalties against the All Blacks or we will really struggle. But the last five times we have played against New Zealand they have been close games,” De Klerk said.

Returning to recent history in the 100^th Test between the two great rivals is perhaps the first thing the Springboks need to do in Townsville on Saturday because De Klerk feels they moved away from the strategies that made them the No.1 side in the world in the two successive losses to Australia.

“Maybe we strayed a little away from how we normally play and that led to errors. We were forcing things a bit and our game-drivers tried to play when it was not on. We fell into the trap of maybe overplaying too much, which puts our forwards under strain. We know we need to be better at that.

“As a team, our main focus is on just getting back on track and hopefully stay in contention to win the Rugby Championship. But we know how to play against the All Blacks and how to capitalise on their weak points. In our last game, at the World Cup, it was basically two kicks that we did not handle, which gave them turnover attack and they scored, that’s when they flourish,” De Klerk said. 

Bulls coach Jake White praised his team for producing almost the perfect game in their record Currie Cup final win over the Sharks on Saturday night: forwards and backs were in unison, the attack was clinical and the defence showed no weakness. And he believes their performance has given them huge confidence and cohesion as they head to Europe.

The Bulls battered the Sharks 44-10 at Loftus Versfeld, the biggest winning margin ever in a Currie Cup final, and the scoreline did not flatter them, so complete was their performance.

“Our captain, Marcell Coetzee, was saying that everything felt so composed and in synch, the backs and forwards just working slickly together. That was very close to the perfect game based on getting chances and making sure we take them, no soft moments in defence and we did not give away many penalties. That’s how you play rugby and it’s going to create massive confidence and cohesion going forward.

“When we play like we did tonight then I’m sure everyone at this incredibly proud union is very happy. To get that composure from what is a young side is very pleasing and it felt like we were in control the whole time. I’m also very happy that in the last two weeks there has been a definite progression in our game; that’s what you want to see – that at the back end of the competition you get better,” White said after the Bulls defended their title in emphatic fashion.

The value of aggressive defence was once again clearly shown as the Sharks dominated possession and territory in the first half, but foundered on the rock of the eager Bulls tackling. The Sharks trailed 19-3 at halftime and the result of the final was all but settled.

“That first set of defence, against attack after attack, and then after 12 phases we get the turnover and the penalty, kick it downfield and then score a try from first phase – it does not get better than that, taking your first chance in a final. Big moments are crucial in finals, but they don’t just happen on attack, but in defence too.

“The Sharks wanted to have a go at us, but we could counter that because we were able to defend and keep our shape, and not allow them to get around us. Altitude catches you and then when they were dead on their feet, we were able to pounce. But it was our defence that gave us the ability to counter-punch. I’m very proud for us to have won back-to-back Currie Cups now,” White said.