Ken Borland

The Bulls have lost a leader in Johan Goosen, but captain Marcell Coetzee said on Tuesday that welcoming the player responsible for the Springboks winning the series against the British and Irish Lions back into the squad can only lift the team as they look to finish their first overseas campaign in the United Rugby Championship on a high against Edinburgh on Saturday.

Morne Steyn arrived in Edinburgh on Tuesday, via an overnight flight from Frankfurt, with the Bulls confirming that flyhalf Goosen was headed in the opposite direction, flying back to South Africa to have scans on the knee he injured in last weekend’s momentous win over the Cardiff Blues.

“Johan is a real character and a good leader in the team, and we are bleeding for him,” Coetzee said. “But now we have Morne here, who won the British and Irish Lions series, he has fantastic experience that you just can’t buy.

“It’s going to be awesome to have him with us this week, what a character he is and a legend of Bulls rugby. He is consistent in all he does and I’m sure he’s going to bring energy and enthusiasm that will lift the team.

“Chris Smith also showed his character and resilience when he replaced Johan, I thought he had an excellent game and he carried that flyhalf mantle really well,” the Springbok loose forward added.

Last weekend’s impressive comeback win against Cardiff was vital for the Bulls after they started the competition with chastening defeats against Leinster and Connacht. It’s their last week on a tough tour to a brand new environment, but Coetzee said the Currie Cup champions are hungry for another win this weekend.

“The mood is a bit more positive now after the win, but we want to be consistent. There’s definitely some new energy, we know it’s our last week on tour and there’s plenty to play for.

“We want that same mindset as in the second half against Cardiff when we gave it everything and the passion and character of the team came out.

“We just want a successful end for the tour, having come into a whole new tournament not knowing what to expect. We are still quite a young group, but we are growing by the day.

“Hopefully things are right now and we must make sure we don’t take a step backwards this weekend. Our performance on Saturday will say a lot about how we have grown as a group and how strong our culture is,” Coetzee said.

The Proteas have enjoyed a superb record-equalling run in T20 cricket of late and will go into next month’s T20 World Cup with their confidence at a high. While Sri Lanka were disappointingly hapless during the 3-0 series whitewash, perhaps more credit should be given to the South Africans for being so clinical in dispatching the home side.

Most critics would probably have backed Sri Lanka to win the series on their home pitches, which were typically sub-continental and designed to favour their strengths and expose the supposed Proteas weaknesses.

Playing in the subcontinent means dealing with spin and South Africa were brilliant in both the progress their batsmen have made on turning pitches and also the sheer quality of their own spin attack, which was relied upon to an extent never seen before in a Proteas team.

The T20 World Cup will be played in what is expected to be similar conditions in the United Arab Emirates.

“It was very pleasing to win the series in the manner we did. We trusted in our process: Sri Lanka have some world-class spinners but our batsmen found a way to handle them and our spinners showed what they can do when they are backed. It’s good that the hierarchy is backing spin more.

“I obviously have my game-plans before the match, but you need to adapt on the field and read the conditions as soon as possible. I try to identify periods when we can go for the kill, and I must give credit to my bowlers for the number of times they came on and took wickets, or even an economical couple of overs. We wanted to really make an impact after the bitter pill of losing the ODI series,” stand-in captain Keshav Maharaj said.

Quinton de Kock may no longer have alpha-male status as the captain, but the wicketkeeper/batsman continued to mark himself out as the Proteas’ key batsman, a real matchwinner in T2 cricket. He was the leading run-scorer in the series with 153 runs, being dismissed just once as he claimed the man of the series award and a career-high eighth place in the ICC T20 rankings.

“Quinny has been in great form after obviously having a tough time in Pakistan. He’s been fantastic in the team environment and you can’t keep a player like that down for too long. He’s obviously in a happy space after a bit of rest, the break was good for him and it rewarded us too.

“He’s going to be a really big player for us at the World Cup and it was good to see him carry his bat through a couple of times, when it would be easy to just score thirty and get out. He’s showing a lot of responsibility and he will be a big name for as at the World Cup,” coach Mark Boucher said.

Sharks coach Sean Everitt will be a restless sleeper this week as he considers the high penalty count recently against his team as they head for their last two round-robin fixtures of the Currie Cup.

The Sharks are currently second on the Currie Cup log, four points behind the Bulls, and they close their regular season by visiting the Lions on Saturday and then hosting Western Province on August 28.

But the Sharks had a double-figure penalty count against them in the first half of their match against the Bulls and were similarly ill-disciplined at the weekend against the Free State Cheetahs. Even though the Cheetahs had suffered a red card early in the second half, they stayed in the game thanks to the Sharks’ lack of focus and the KwaZulu-Natalians finished the 38-31 win with 13 men thanks to two yellow cards in the closing minutes.

“We’re very happy with the five points against the Cheetahs, but there are two work-ons we have to get right before playing the Lions in Johannesburg. The first is our set-pieces and the second is the number of penalties we are conceding. Those are due to individual errors and not system faults. Up to the Bulls game we had conceded the least penalties in the competition.

“After the last two games we are probably sitting top of that list now. We can’t defend for the majority of a game due to discipline issues, we need to take the pressure off ourselves if we are going to play free-flowing rugby. We need to rectify the number of penalties we’re conceding because we won’t have enough possession if we keep giving away penalties,’ Everitt said.

Nevertheless, the Sharks did score six tries against the Cheetahs, exciting wing Thaakir Abrahams scoring twice, and some of their attacking play would have been enough to make the coach purr with delight.

“Thaakir is always a threat with ball in hand, he poses big problems for the opposition. It was unfortunate that we had an injury in the warm-up and Marnus Potgieter [hamstring] was not able to take the field, but we were very fortunate to be able to bring in someone like Yaw Penxe, who has been with the Springboks.

“It was Le Roux Roets’ third game in a row so he’s getting that consistency now and he was massive in his ball-carries and setting the maul, while it was also good to see Cameron Wright back on the field and Boeta Chamberlain get a start. Dylan Richardson is blessed with an engine that can just go and go, he had a big impact defensively and with his ball-carries,” Everitt said.

Proteas batsman Temba Bavuma said on Friday that the pressure was on the South African batsmen in the first Test against Sri Lanka and the fact that they were able to deliver means they will go into the second Test starting at the Wanderers on Sunday with spirits high.

After a poor bowling display on the first day by the Proteas, Sri Lanka were able to post 396 in their first innings, their highest ever total in South Africa. Batting second on a tricky pitch on which the bounce was only getting more inconsistent, the home side replied with a brilliant total of 621. Dean Elgar and Aiden Markram set the tone with their opening stand of 141 and the middle-order then batted superbly, led by Faf du Plessis’ epic 199, to recover from a wobble that saw them lose three wickets for 20 runs. Bavuma stroked an impressive 71 as he shared a record fifth-wicket stand of 179 with Du Plessis, the key partnership of the match.

“It was a good all-round performance by the team, we were able to bring the game back through strong performances, led by the batting. There hasn’t been a lot of consistency or confidence in our batting so the pressure was on, especially on the senior guys to step up. There was pressure on us because we are quite an inexperienced side and the batting has the Test caps, so the team looks to us to perform, which adds an extra element of pressure.

“Fortunately they were able to step up and Dean and Aiden set us up, before Faf’s career-best knock which was more than magnificent. I was able to set up a partnership with him that led to a winning position and it was nice for myself to get some runs under the belt, to get the confidence flowing. I was happy with the way I went about my business although the opportunity was there to score so much more. Walking prematurely before the umpire’s decision was not my cleverest moment, but it was spur of the moment,” Bavuma said on Friday.

With both Migael Pretorius and Glenton Stuurman released from the squad due to muscle strains, and coach Mark Boucher having expressed his reluctance to not field a spinner, the return of Kagiso Rabada is the sole likely change to the team that won by an innings at Centurion.

“The first-innings bowling was not our best effort but the second innings was much better in terms of discipline, intensity and ruthlessness. Our bowling attack is quite inexperienced but they have a lot of skill, there’s no compromise on that. They are eager and keen to learn. The Wanderers will be quite similar to Centurion, with pace, bounce and lateral movement.

“Our bowlers relish those conditions and the batsmen are used to quick and more bouncy pitches. We are quite courageous mentally in those conditions. Our familiarity with the conditions makes it easier for us,” Bavuma said.