Ken Borland

The Bulls have lost the services of Springbok mainstay Trevor Nyakane but probably have five million reasons to be happy to let him go, with coach Jake White saying on Wednesday that he was “comfortable” with the versatile prop’s move.

The 32-year-old Nyakane, who played in 12 of the Springboks’ 13 Tests this year, has signed with French club Racing 92, and will begin his three-year deal in Paris before the end of the month. Nyakane had two more years to run on his Bulls contract, however, and the Pretoria franchise will reportedly receive R5 million from one of the leading clubs in Europe in compensation.

“Trevor is no longer with us, although we were going to give him time off until January anyway,” White said on Wednesday. “He was never going to stay with us forever and post the 2023 World Cup, I didn’t see him playing domestically anyway.

“It was always highly likely that he was going overseas and we haven’t had him for six months anyway, plus we were likely to not have him for big chunks of next year.

“He’s been fantastic for the Bulls and is a great team man, but in terms of return on investment, sometimes it’s the right time to release a player.

“We’re very comfortable letting him go and we are busy planning to get one or two other tightheads in our squad. It’s not ideal losing players overseas, but you don’t want to be paying big money for players if you never see them,” White said.

The former Springbok coach also suggested that the national team might have to go back to their previous policy of having zero overseas-based players in their line-up, in order to protect franchise rugby at home.

“It raises the question whether the policy of picking overseas players for the Springboks is going to last forever? Because long-term that policy is to the detriment of the franchises and that’s a fact,” White said.

“For me, the Irish and Kiwi model, where only home-based players are picked for the national team, works and they have been successful with it. Australia have the Matt Giteau rule allowing more experienced players from overseas to play for the Wallabies.

“At the moment I’m not sure the franchises get a return on investment because you have so many players unavailable for long periods and we have a salary cap. But we are not as affected as the Stormers or Sharks,” White said.

“Oh no it’s raining again!” would have been the united cry of all North-West Dragons fans as their team was surely denied a place in the CSA Provincial T20 Knockout final by the weather in Kimberley on Thursday afternoon.

Having bowled superbly to restrict the much-fancied Free State Knights team to just 127 for seven in 19 overs, earlier rain having chopped an over off the innings, North-West openers Eben Botha (21* off 8) and Wesley Marshall (20* off 7) had smashed 42 runs off just 2.3 overs when the rain returned.

And unfortunately the showers were severe enough for the match to be called off with No Result, North-West being left to ponder what might have been as they only needed another 88 runs off 99 balls with all 10 wickets intact for a place in Friday’s final against the KZN Dolphins.

Unfortunately for the Potchefstroom-based team, Free State advance instead due to them having a higher nett run-rate in the tournament as a whole.

Free State had earlier elected to bat first, but struggled to 91 for six after 16 overs as North-West captain Nicky van den Bergh made adroit use of his bowlers to pick up regular wickets, three of them falling to Eldred Hawken.

Paceman Chad Classen created the initial pressure by conceding just 17 runs in his four brilliant overs, and left-arm spinner Senuran Muthusamy then turned the screw with exceptional figures of two for 12 in his four overs.

Knights captain Pite van Biljon tried to hold the innings together with his 29, but it was only thanks to an incredible 29 not out off just 12 balls by Gerald Coetzee, after the first rain delay, that Free State made it to 127.

Given the blazing start North-West made to their innings though, it would surely not have been enough if the rain had not intervened.

Leus du Plooy will make an emotional return to South African cricket as he turns out as the overseas pro for South-Western Districts in their CSA T20 Knockout Cup quarterfinal against Northerns in Kimberley on Tuesday, but it is three returning full internationals for the Titans who will probably have a greater impact.

Du Plooy’s last appearance in South Africa came in April 2019 when he scored a century for Northerns against Eastern Province at St George’s Park. He then joined Derbyshire as a Kolpak player and did well enough to receive a contract until the end of next season, as well as being chosen to play in The Hundred for Welsh Fire.

But Northerns will welcome back an even bigger star of English county cricket in off-spinner Simon Harmer, as well as batsman Theunis de Bruyn and fast bowler Junior Dala.

De Bruyn has had a wretched time with injury lately and will be eager to stamp his mark on the early-season with big runs, while Dala gives the Titans a trio of fearsome fast bowlers as he joins Corbin Bosch and the in-form Okuhle Cele.

With Dean Elgar still injured, left-arm spinner Aaron Phangiso will lead the Titans. He may be 37-years-old, but he showed in the pool stages in Bloemfontein, as he took four for 52 in his 10 overs overall, that there is no mould on his skills and he is still quite capable of keeping batsmen in the dark.

The hard-hitting Donovan Ferreira and opener Jandre Pretorius are two young guys who grew their reputations in Bloemfontein.

The Free State Knights take on Western Province in Tuesday’s other quarterfinal, while Wednesday morning’s clash between the high-flying KZN Dolphins and the aggressive Eastern Province Warriors should be fun.

The Boland Rocks play the last quarterfinal against North-West in a match that will showcase what CSA are hoping are two growth areas of the game.

The Bulls have discovered that, so far, rugby in the Northern Hemisphere has been all about tempo, reacting quickly to breakdowns and ensuring you cover the whole field in defence, and Edinburgh, their United Rugby Championship opponents on Saturday, will put their learnings to a comprehensive examination at Murrayfield.

Edinburgh enjoy playing at pace and keeping ball-in-hand, always looking to get their strike-runners involved. But, as the Stormers showed in drawing with them last weekend despite conceding two tries in the first six minutes, defending with physicality, commitment and alacrity can frustrate them.

“Edinburgh want to speed up the game and throw the ball around, so it’s all about covering the field quicker,” Bulls backline star Cornal Hendricks said on the defensive priorities against the side coached by Scotland’s most-capped scrumhalf, Mike Blair. “They take quick-taps as well, so whenever they have ball-in-hand then our player 10 metres back must react by going for the guy with the ball.

“We have to organise our defence to spread, so it’s important to scan properly and be aware of the whole width of the field. They don’t want to go through you, they want to go around you,” Hendricks said.

Bulls captain and flank Marcell Coetzee also pointed to the speed at which Edinburgh want to play, but also singled out the breakdowns as being vital.

“I think sides over here have identified taking on the South African teams with tempo, which we aren’t really used to back home. Although Edinburgh have a very good set-piece foundation and kicking game as well, they have brought in a lot of tempo.

“That’s what Gregor Townsend [Scotland head coach] is trying to implement and we have to adapt and shut it down. Here in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s a breakdown battle.

“It’s all about reaction speed and we tended to turn over our ball on the second phase. We need to be quicker to commit and read the breakdowns better. You’ve got to work on your second, third, fourth phase as well,” Coetzee said.

This was obviously something the Bulls got right in the second half of last weekend’s win over Cardiff Blues, which sealed the most impressive of comebacks from 3-16 down.

“As soon as we were able to get time and space, that’s when the breakdowns changed for us. And as soon as we got front-foot ball, got our carries going, then we put them under pressure, which led to penalties for us,” Coetzee added.

That sounds like it has the makings of a game-plan to use against Edinburgh as well, sucking them into a collisions battle of which they probably don’t want to be part.