Ken Borland

Jake White may have his first-choice Bulls side back against a Stormers team that is missing a trio of injured Springboks, but he still said the home team will be the favourites in their United Rugby Championship derby in Cape Town on Friday night.

The Stormers will be without Evan Roos, their talismanic eighthman, exciting young lock Salmaan Moerat and experienced scrumhalf Herschel Jantjies, while White on Thursday named a Bulls team with nine Springboks in the starting line-up and two more on the bench.

But White said he did not read too much into who the Stormers are missing.

“I don’t think it’s a weaker Stormers team, nothing has changed. Our team is still young and in evolution, we’re still where we were last year – we’re developing,” White said.

“I like to think we’re playing better rugby than last year because of the added experience, but we are still a young team building together. We’ve not suddenly become a powerhouse senior team.

“If you look at the Stormers tight five, they are each a couple of years older than ours when you look man-for-man. And John Dobson has been coaching them for a long time.

“So I think they’re favourites. But it’s fantastic that the North/South derby has its aura back, the challenge is healthy and hopefully we do the rivalry justice,” White said.

Things have switched around dramatically from the old rendition of the derby when “10-man” Northern Transvaal relied on a robust, hardcore pack and Western Province, who had a ruthless backline, almost had a bounty out on flyhalf Naas Botha.

Now it is the Stormers who have the grizzled old hard men up front and the Bulls who have the exciting runners in the backs. Although the intensity of this derby could be like a Test match, White said he was hopeful there would still be bountiful space for his dashers.

“I like to believe there will still be space for them. These are good players who have opened up holes in Test rugby. I’m very proud of the good attacking backs we have, Chris Rossouw has worked really hard with them and we’ve had three guys called up for national duty this year, so I guess it is a bit like an old Western Province backline.

“We’ll need to be accurate when we have the ball and score some tries, because we’re not going to win by just keeping them out of our 22.

“But we do also have to be good enough not to give them entries into our 22 because I don’t see them going away from scrumming for penalties, kicking to the corner and then mauling for tries,” White said.

Bulls:Kurt-Lee Arendse, Cornal Hendricks, Lionel Mapoe, Harold Vorster, Canan Moodie, Johan Goosen, Embrose Papier, Elrigh Louw, Cyle Brink, Marco Van Staden, Ruan Nortje (c), Ruan Vermaak, Mornay Smith, Johan Grobbelaar, Gerhard Steenekamp. Bench -Bismarck du Plessis, Simphiwe Matanzima, Sebastian Lombard, Janko Swanepoel, Nizaam Carr, Zak Burger, Chris Smit, Stravino Jacobs.

The Sharks are following the manual on how to retreat into a laager to the letter this week as they head into their United Rugby Championship match against the Ospreys in Durban on Friday night refusing to discuss the firing of their head coach Sean Everitt or the fact that Siya Kolisi is injured.

Whether this is all an air of denial or one of defiance will only be seen on Friday night against an Ospreys side who gave the high-flying Bulls a tough second half at Loftus Versfeld last weekend.

Everitt had been at the Sharks for more than a decade and was a popular figure; since new director of rugby Neil Powell has arrived at Kings Park they have put in a flat performance against the Bulls and a horror show against Cardiff. But Powell has now officially taken over the coaching of the team.

The former Springbok Sevens supremo said on Thursday that he is satisfied that the team is behind him.

“Obviously it has not been an easy week, but it was important to get the whole squad of fifty together. We are all part of it and we’ve got to make it better. Our goals are still the same.

“It was important to discuss that and we’ve got buy-in already from the players. A lot has been said, but we can speak as much as we like, it’s time now for action.

“That’s where Siya and Eben Etzebeth have made a massive contribution for us this week as well, they were at every session and meeting, refocusing us on the job at hand.

“We will keep chipping away and moving in the right direction until we get success in terms of the focus and mindset,” Powell said, before revealing that Kolisi was unavailable for selection due to injury, while Etzaebeth is being rested.

When asked for more details of Kolisi’s injury, Powell said he was unable to say more.

But fellow Springboks Ox Nche and Bongi Mbonambi will bring their strength to the front row, while Vincent Tshituka has moved from the back row to lock, where Powell will hope he can ford the gainline with success.

Both regular eighthmen, Phepsi Buthelezi and Sikhumbuzo Notshe, are in the loose trio, along with the combative Jeandre Labuschagne.

Perhaps the most significant selection though is that of Curwin Bosch, back at flyhalf and being relied upon to lead the team into the right areas on the field.

“It’s important to try and maximize our pack and Vincent can make a massive contribution at No.4,” Powell explained. “And it does not make sense playing either Sikhumbuzo or Phepsi, you want your best players on the field.

“We’re looking to Curwin to manage the game from a kicking perspective, make sure we’re playing in the opposition half by getting on top of the kicking game. We want our flyhalf to manage the game better in terms of kicking and communication,” Powell said.

Sharks – Boeta Chamberlain, Marnus Potgieter, Francois Venter, Ben Tapuai, Makazole Mapimpi, Curwin Bosch, Jaden Hendrikse, Phepsi Buthelezi (c), Jeandre Labuschagne, Sikhumbuzo Notshe, Gerbrandt Grobler, Vincent Tshituka, Carlu Sadie, Bongi Mbonambi, Ox Nche. Bench: Dan Jooste, Ntuthuko Mchunu, Khutha Mchunu, Hyron Andrews, James Venter, Grant Williams, Nevaldo Fleurs, Rohan Janse van Rensburg.

South Africa are bringing in Ryan Rickelton for the injured Rassie van der Dussen for the third and decisive Test against England at The Oval from Thursday, but they are considering other changes as well as captain Dean Elgar continued to express his disappointment with the batting.

The 26-year-old Rickelton will win his third Test cap after scoring 114 runs in two Tests against Bangladesh at the end of last summer. He played four first-class matches for Northamptonshire in June/July and collected two centuries and four fifties.

The other changes the Proteas are expected to think long and hard about are whether to continue playing a second frontline spinner in Simon Harmer or recall Marco Jansen, and whether to make a second change to the batting line-up by leaving out the struggling Aiden Markram and bringing in Khaya Zondo or all-rounder Wiaan Mulder.

“Ryan is in and we’re pretty confident about him after he had a decent stint in the UK playing county cricket, it’s his chance to hopefully shine,” Elgar said on Wednesday.

“But we’ve done a lot of thinking and spoken about tough decisions, and I’m sure there might be one or two extra changes. I know how much top-order runs mean to set up victory for a team.

“We’ve spoken at length about that and now it’s time to walk the talk. Our batting at Old Trafford was not our proudest moment, but you’ve got to go through the grief and then crack on and focus on what’s next.

“We’ve had a few rough matches in the past and at the end of the day we have come out okay. I like to think that past experience will play a part and we can stand up and bring our best game,” Elgar said.

Test aficionados will be delighted that the series is coming down to a decider in the last match and Elgar said the third Test would be his biggest game since taking over the captaincy.

“This is the biggest Test so far in my captaincy period, it’s like a World Cup final for us, that’s the way I view it, and the players know and sense that. It’s one of those Tests you play as if it is your last.

“We need to empty the tank and leave everything on the field. It’s going to be huge, it’s a massive game for us. I’ve never experienced a series win against England, so that’s in 10 years.

“So it would be massive for me if we win, but also for the youngsters in the team. We are going in with real confidence. We may be in the World Test Championship final later because we are in a really good spot – if we manage to win this Test then we’ll be back at number one,” Elgar said.

Heinrich Klaasen, the replacement for the injured Quinton de Kock as wicketkeeper, really grabbed his opportunity as he blasted a tremendous 81 off 46 balls to lead South Africa to a four-wicket win with 10 balls to spare in the second T20 against India in Cuttack on Sunday.

Klaasen’s remarkable innings came after seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar had the Proteas batting reeling as they went in search of a moderate target of just 149.

South Africa won the first T20 as they chased down a record target of 212, but Sunday’s two-paced pitch at the Barabati Stadium really tested the batsmen on both sides, with inconsistent bounce and providing seam movement off the surface.

Bhuvneshwar undermined the Proteas chase from the start, using his remarkable skills to take 3/10 in his first three overs. Reeza Hendricks (4) and Rassie van der Dussen (1) were both bowled by deliveries that nipped back through the gate, while Dwaine Pretorius (4) was well-caught by Avesh Khan at deep backward square-leg off a knuckle ball.

Bhuvneshwar returned when just a handful of runs were needed and bowled Wayne Parnell for 1 to end with 4/13.

Captain Temba Bavuma scored a defiant 35 off 30 balls to begin the recovery with Klaasen, who came in do to De Kock’s finger injury suffered in the first game. The pair added 64 in seven overs before Bavuma was bowled by spinner Yuzvendra Chahal.

But Klaasen charged on, hitting seven fours and five sixes, with David Miller doing his usual efficient job at the death to finish the run-chase with 20 not out off 15 balls.

South Africa had won the toss and once again elected to chase, with Kagiso Rabada yet again delivering up front as he dismissed Ruturaj Gaikwad (1) in the first over and went on to bowl his four overs for an exceptionally economical 15 runs.

Ishan Kishan (34) and Shreyas Iyer (40) added 45 for the second wicket in six overs, before fast bowler Anrich Nortje had Kishan out hooking a bouncer and Pretorius surprised Shreyas with a delivery that stood up outside off stump and induced a catch behind.

Nortje and Pretorius were the dearest of the Proteas bowlers, however, conceding 36 and 40 runs respectively, and it was left-armer Parnell who backed up Rabada most effectively, bowling the dangerous Hardik Pandya for nine and conceding just 23 runs in his four overs.

Stalwart Dinesh Karthik hit 30 not out off 21 balls at the death to lift India to 148/6, which seemed a tricky target before Klaasen’s phenomenal innings.