Ken Borland

The Bulls showed pleasing character as they rebounded from their embarrassing loss in the Rainbow Cup final, staying the course and pulling off a tight 32-27 win over the Pumas in an intriguing Currie Cup match at Loftus Versfeld on Friday night.

The Bulls dominated the set-pieces in the first half and two clinical tries by centre Harold Vorster, through a chip and regather with his first touch in a Bulls jersey, and Madosh Tambwe, who breezed past the last two Pumas defenders, gave the home side a 17-3 halftime lead.

Of course the ever-committed Pumas were going to fight back and some soft moments by the Bulls, letting wing Tapiwa Mafura to bounce off a couple of tackles down the right and then Tambwe allowing a grubber to go through his legs, saw excellent left wing Etienne Taljaard get a well-deserved try.

But Bulls centre Cornal Hendricks showed great game awareness as his long pass to Stravino Jacobs found the wing in space, although the Pumas reacted well. But the visitors tried to counter-ruck, Hendricks picked up the ball and went scooting down the blindside and scored to give the defending champions a 25-10 lead with 15 minutes remaining.

But far from setting up a comfortable finish for the Bulls, that’s when things started to become really tough for the home side. The Pumas began to exert pressure on the scrums and flyhalf Eddie Fouche flourished.

He firstly chipped over the top and regathered to score as Jacobs could not take the ball cleanly under the pressure, and then, after a particularly big scrum, Fouche’s wonderful long pass to Devon Williams saw the fullback come screaming through midfield and then pass out wide for Mafura to score.

It was suddenly a one-point game, but the Bulls managed to keep calm. Captain Marcell Coetzee burst down the blindside off a scrum, the Bulls then went left to exploit the space and good hands allowed replacement fullback David Kriel to step inside and score the matchwinning try.

Having been so below par last weekend in Italy, coach Jake White will be delighted the Bulls not only played with some confidence but also dealt with concerted pressure from the Pumas in the final quarter. Flyhalf Chris Smith, after a horrid time against Benetton, was especially impressive, succeeding with all six of his kicks at goal, getting stuck in on the gain-line and showing some superb hands as he got his backline away smoothly.

For all their impressive efforts, the Pumas seem cursed to continually just fall short at Loftus Versfeld.

Scorers

Bulls – Tries: Harold Vorster, Madosh Tambwe, Cornal Hendricks, David Kriel. Conversions: Chris Smith (4). Penalties: Smith (2).

Pumas – Tries: Etienne Taljaard, Eddie Fouche, Tapiwa Mufura. Conversions: Eddie Fouche (3). Penalties: Fouche (2).

Bulls coach Jake White is not one to massage the egos of his players, but he said on Thursday that he hoped their “embarrassing” defeat in the Rainbow Cup final does not make them fearful and he wants them to go out and have a go when they return to action with a Currie Cup match against the Pumas at Loftus Versfeld on Friday night.

The Bulls were hammered 35-8 by Benetton Treviso in Italy, leaving them shellshocked. But White is hoping they will not be “gun-shy” against the fired-up Pumas side that never stands back, especially not with the confidence gained from their bonus point win over the Lions.

There are only a handful of players taking on their neighbours on Friday night who did not play in the Benetton ambush.

“There could be that fear factor, the guys could go into their shell because of the damage done last weekend, which would not be good. We’ve got to bounce back, we are still one of the top sides in South Africa, the Currie Cup champions, and there’s massive motivation. But the true test will come when the guys run on the field. I’m hoping what we learnt about intensity in Italy is taken a step up.

“We worked hard to get to 8-8 against Benetton but then we did not fire a shot. It was a different level of intensity and I want us to play and not be scared against the Pumas. We’re not going to lose the competition on Friday night and I want us to have a go after we were a bit gun-shy last weekend. The captain said they were a bit embarrassed and people expect us to rebound and react,” White said.

White said his search for something to “spark” the team was behind the selection of veteran Gio Aplon at starting fullback and the call-up of new signing Harold Vorster, the powerful former Lions star who has the chance to nail down the No.13 jersey.

“Gio is unbelievably important to us, after seven months out with a knee injury he makes a great try-saving tackle against the Sharks and he had three or four phenomenal touches in last week’s final. And that’s not mentioning how much work he puts into the wings, Madosh Tambwe and Stravino Jacobs, it’s like having a senior coach out there.

“Harold was phenomenal for the Lions and hopefully he and Gio can spark something because we were flat last week, a bit reluctant to play. They are experienced and hopefully they will have a go because they don’t feel as much pressure. I would like to see what we learnt in Italy translated into our game against the Pumas, we must make sure we take that pace and intensity forward,” White said.

Bulls team: Gio Aplon, Madosh Tambwe, Harold Vorster, Cornal Hendricks, Stravino Jacobs, Chris Smith, Ivan van Zyl, Marcell Coetzee (C), Ruan Nortje, Nizaam Carr, Janko Swanepoel, Walt Steenkamp, Mornay Smith, Schalk Erasmus, Lizo Gqoboka. Bench – Sidney Tobias, Simphiwe Matanzima, Jacques van Rooyen, Muller Uys, WJ Steenkamp, Zak Burger, FC du Plessis, David Kriel.

An unprecedented 21 players will make their Currie Cup debut for the Bulls on Saturday as they take on Western Province at Loftus Versfeld in the opening round, but stand-in coach Pine Pienaar believes his rookies will give absolutely everything as they get to play in a North/South derby that would have been beyond their immediate dreams.

Nine of those players are not even in the Bulls structures and have had to be called in from club rugby. The extraordinary selection – for surely one of the most important games of the Currie Cup – has been forced on the Bulls because they have 28 players in Italy for the Rainbow Cup final, four are with the Springboks, four are unavailable due to injury, two are on duty with the Blitzboks and six have been called up by the Junior Springboks.

But there are still a couple of familiar faces in the team as highly-rated loosehead prop Simphiwe Matanzima will finally make his return after 10 months out with a torn achilles tendon and Richard Kriel, younger brother of David, will want to show what he can do at fullback. And TV viewers will get the eye-popping experience of seeing gigantic prop Mhleli Dlamini in the flesh when he comes off the bench.

“We see it as a reward for the guys at the clubs, in Varsity Cup or in our juniors who have done well. It’s going to be an unbelievable privilege for them to play in a North/South Currie Cup derby, everyone is looking forward to the challenge and that’s what we’ve spoken about with them. After we had a session just to get to know each other …

“These guys never thought in their wildest dreams that they would be playing for the Bulls now. We’ve prepared as best we can from last week and there’s an unbelievable atmosphere in the team because they all want to create an impression and express themselves. The one definite is that they will put in a massive effort and we’ll stay in the fight for as long as we can,” Pienaar said on Thursday.

Despite the difficulties involved in getting a team drawn from so many different parts to gel together, Pienaar says the Bulls will have a holistic game-plan against Western Province.

“I think we have a good combination between forwards and backs and we will try to attack space with ball-in-hand. There will be a lot of mistakes, but we won’t be looking at the scoreboard, it’s about getting our processes right and the guys will definitely go out and give it their all,” Pienaar said.

Bulls: Richard Kriel, Sebastiaan Jobb, Sango Xamlashe (Captain), Louritz van der Schyff, Kefentse Mahlo, Jandre Burger, Johan Mulder, Jaco Bezuidenhout, Jaco Labuschagne, Henco Beukes, Tiaan de Klerk, JJ Scheepers, Francois Klopper, Werner Fourie, Simphiwe Matanzima. Bench -Llewelyn Classen, Dewald Donald, Mhleli Dlamini, Adolph Visser, Eduan Lubbe, Tiaan Fourie, Kabelo Mokoena, Niel Beukes.

Bulls coach Jake White was not expecting elusive wing Rosko Specman to be playing for the Stormers against his team in their Rainbow Cup match at Loftus Versfeld on Friday night, but he does know those thickset brutes in the visiting pack are going to be trying to wrestle his side into submission.

Specman, on loan from the Free State Cheetahs, was rushed straight into the Stormers starting line-up on Thursday, with Sergeal Petersen being relegated to the bench. Specman was one of the players released from the Bulls by White last year and there have been suggestions of some bad blood between the two.

But when White was asked on Thursday about Specman coming back to Loftus Versfeld to play against his former team, White said he was delighted for the Springbok Sevens star. Before adding a trademark bit of psychological warfare against the Stormers.

“It’s fantastic for Rosko, although I don’t know if he’ll play. I’ll be very pleased for him if he does and he’s also been in the Springbok alignment camps. But there are probably five other wings who have been in Cape Town the whole year, so it’s difficult for them to just parachute Rosko in ahead of everyone else, especially a guy like Edwill van der Merwe, who scored the winning try in their last match.

“So I don’t expect anything different from the Stormers, they have a formula that works for them and the last time they were here, they had six forwards on the bench. That’s working for them and they use their scrum and maul to attack you a lot. It’s going to be a massive, must-win game for us. Fortunately we have three Springboks [Marcell Coetzee, Ivan van Zyl & Gio Aplon] back for a huge game against the team that has the most Springboks in their pack,” White said.

While Coetzee playing with Springbok legend Duane Vermeulen and up-and-coming star Elrigh Louw, and Marco van Staden on the bench, in a loose trio White described as probably being the best in global club rugby is going to engender much excitement, the return of utility back Gio Aplon, to cross swords with his old team, and scrumhalf Ivan van Zyl is most welcome.

With less than a month to run on Van Zyl’s contract before he joins Saracens, many coaches would have ploughed on with Zak Burger and Keegan Johannes at halfback now that Embrose Papier is injured. But not White.

“It sums up everything about our culture. If Ivan had wanted to hide or protect himself before going to Saracens, I would have been disappointed. But it says a lot for him that he wants to be part of the team, he wants to finish here on a high and complete his contract properly. That’s a sign that things are where they should be.

“The reality is I do have other scrumhalves, but I’ve gone for the best one to get the job done in this match, and Embrose is injured and I don’t think he’ll be able to play for a couple of weeks. Ivan is one of the guys showing he has wonderful character, and that’s why we have been successful,” White said.