Ken Borland

Xerox Golden Lions coach Johan Ackermann said on Thursday that his team are likely to face a tremendous onslaught from the Vodacom Blue Bulls pack in their Absa Currie Cup Premier Division match at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday which is why he has chosen a five-two split between forwards and backs on the bench.

Springbok Sevens cap and former Natal Sharks wing Mark Richards could make his Lions debut off the bench, while centre Howard Mnisi, a recent signing from Griquas, is the only other back on the replacements bench.

Ackermann on Thursday named hooker Armand van der Merwe, prop Jacques van Rooyen, lock Martin Muller, utility forward Willie Britz and loose forward Kwagga Smith as the other five substitutes for Saturday’s local derby.

“The Bulls will obviously bring a big onslaught up front and being able to bring on fresh legs will be in our favour. We’ve got a lot of versatile players in the backs – Andries Coetzee can play scrumhalf and between Mark Richards and Kwagga Smith, because of their time as Sevens Springboks, they can cover from scrumhalf to wing.

“So we’ve been able to choose a specialist lock and Willie Britz covers both lock and flank, so it’s a really good mix. It’s going to be very hard at forward, so we’ve gone with five forwards on the bench to bring fresh legs on. We expect a big physical onslaught, we’re ready for it and if the game becomes loose then Willie can do some damage, he’s shown how he can turn games in the second half,” Ackermann said on Thursday.

The Lions coach said he had also decided to hand the captaincy of the team to Derick Minnie, who returns to the starting line-up at eighthman, because last week’s skipper in the victory over the EP Kings, Lionel Mapoe, is too removed from the action on the wing.

“We saw last week Lionel gets caught out wide and can’t get messages to the referee in time, I explained it to him that he’s too far from the action. That’s why so many captains are up front.

“I rely a lot on the captain to set the tone and Derick has done that before. The one with the armband speaks to the referee and to us [the coaching staff], but I want leadership from the players in general, which is why we have unit leaders for the scrums, lineouts and backs,” Ackermann explained.

Minnie has replaced Britz at eighthman, while the other change sees experienced former Bulls hooker Willie Wepener come into the front row in place of Van der Merwe.

Ackermann said he was pleased to welcome Jaco van der Walt back into the flyhalf position.

“I’m pleased to have Jaco back, we saw a lot of potential in him and it’s good to have him back so we can continue our development of him. He’s a specialist flyhalf so hopefully we’ll have more flow, and he’s kicked well in training.

“There are definitely areas and times when you need to relieve the pressure with a kick and Jaco has a long boot. That’s in our favour and will definitely be a factor if things are not going for us,” Ackermann said.

The other change to the Lions team sees Ruan Combrinck moving from fullback to replace Courtnall Skosan on the wing, with Coetzee moving from flyhalf to fullback.

Team: 15-Andries Coetzee, 14-Lionel Mapoe, 13-Stokkies Hanekom, 12-Alwyn Hollenbach, 11-Ruan Combrinck, 10-Jaco van der Walt, 9-Ross Cronje, 8-Derick Minnie, 7-Warwick Tecklenburg, 6-Jaco Kriel, 5-Franco Mostert, 4-MB Lusaseni, 3-Ruan Dreyer, 2-Willie Wepener, 1-Schalk van der Merwe. Bench – 16-Armand van der Merwe, 17-Jacques van Rooyen, 18-Martin Muller, 19-Willie Britz, 20-Kwagga Smith, 21-Mark Richards, 22-Howard Mnisi.

It was a scintillating Saturday for left wing Seabelo Senatla at Loftus Versfeld as he scored a magnificent try and set up a brilliant second one as Western Province beat the Blue Bulls 23-18 in an entertaining Absa Currie Cup match.

Western Province bided their time, defending superbly as the Bulls dominated territory for long periods, and when they struck it was potent and clinical.

While the Bulls’ attack was mostly narrow, their forwards driving and mauling the ball up ad infinitum, Western Province kept their width and weren’t afraid to use it.

And the Bulls erred enough times while on attack to provide the visitors with counter-attacking opportunities. One of those was on the hour mark when wing Sampie Mastriet coughed up possession and Western Province fullback Cheslin Kolbe ran the turnover ball across the field and linked up with Senatla, who was holding position out wide on the 22m line.

Senatla had space, which is a recipe for disaster when defending against the Sevens star, and he embarked on a dazzling 80m run that saw him ignominiously burn William Small-Smith on the outside, before dancing infield and then bursting through Jesse Kriel’s tackle to score a try that will be remembered for many a day.

That brilliant try came just three minutes after Western Province had scored their first try, which was also a superb effort and possibly even more thrilling for the coaching staff because it came off a set-piece move.

From a lineout, flyhalf Demetri Catrakilis looped with eighthman Nizaam Carr and inside centre Jaco Taute then gave a super inside ball to Senatla, who came flying up from the left wing. The 21-year-old showed his wonderful feet as he danced through the gap and then fed the ball out wide to Kobus van Wyk, who had done well to keep his width, and finished with great pace himself.

Although Senatla was helped off the field soon afterwards after twisting his ankle, the injury is apparently not a major one and certainly not season-ending.

Catrakilis converted both tries and suddenly Western Province were 20-10 up when just five minutes earlier it had looked to be the Bulls’ day as they led 10-6 after a penalty by replacement flyhalf Tian Schoeman rewarded an excellent scrum by the home side.

“To play like that and to lose can make your mind go,” Bulls coach Frans Ludeke lamented after the match. “Credit to the players for a huge improvement and there were a lot of positives from that game. But we just lost momentum in the second half at crucial times, we didn’t exit well enough and there were soft moments.”

“I’m really very happy to beat a desperate Bulls side which showed a big improvement tonight, at altitude. It’s their first loss at Loftus Versfeld this year and if they’d played like that before they would have had many more points on the log. We made mistakes but it takes a tight team to pull through here,” Western Province coach Allister Coetzee said.

“Our defence is a non-negotiable, but we’ve also got the players to turn defence into attack. The outside backs were really switched on to that tonight and the half-backs also play a big role in that. We have strength, speed, guile and power in our backline and it’s a good combination.

“There’s a good balance to our play, it doesn’t depend on where we are on the field of play either, and we’re devastating at the moment from broken play,” the former Springbok assistant coach said.

The opening points of the match only came after 34 minutes of intriguing ball-in-hand action and massive defence by both sides.

A good kick by Kurt Coleman, on while Catrakilis was in the blood bin, forced the Bulls to concede a lineout just outside their 22 and the Western Province rolling maul earned the substitute flyhalf a penalty shot at goal.

Bulls flyhalf Joshua Stander  missed an easy penalty just a minute later and, after playing their best rugby of the campaign in the first half, dominating territory but hardly kicking, and pounding the advantage line, the home side would have been disappointed to have gone into the break scoreless.

Catrakilis landed a second penalty for Western Province five minutes into the second half – it came after a period of Bulls-like driving and mauling by the visitors – but it took just three more minutes for the hosts to score their first points, through a great try by storming flank Jacques du Plessis.

The Bulls were defending a lineout 30 metres from their line after a poor clearance by Kriel, but when Western Province threw over the top and eighthman Jono Ross won the ball, they again refused to just kick possession away. Instead Ross ran and found mobile lock Grant Hattingh, who burst clear into space. Mastriet then dashed down the right wing before the ball went back inside and Du Plessis charged over for an impressive try.

Stander converted and then his replacement Schoeman kicked a penalty to put the Bulls 10-6 up.

“We wanted to keep the pace and tempo of the game up, get numbers to the ball, and it was just our final passes that let us down,” Ludeke said. “We were really attacking the gainline and slowly but surely getting somewhere, but then we would give them broken field play and that’s where their tries came from. We need to look after the ball better, but I thought we had the better of them in the scrums and our lineouts were good.”

But then Senatla showed his extraordinary finishing talents to put Western Province firmly in control.

The Bulls held on to the ball well for the next 10 minutes to earn another penalty for Schoeman, but Dean Greyling’s high tackle on Kolbe gave Coleman the opportunity to restore a 10-point lead (23-13) just four minutes later.

The Bulls hammered away at close quarters in the final minutes and belatedly got quick ball out wide to Mastriet, who powered through two tackles from 20 metres out to score.

Schoeman missed the touchline conversion and the Bulls were unable to breach the phenomenal Western Province defence again before the final hooter sounded.

“We need the same effort but with more accuracy,” Ludeke concluded.

For Coetzee, Western Province’s fourth successive win not only stretches their lead at the top of the log to three points but could also be a watershed moment in their Currie Cup campaign.

“There’s a complete integration in our play and we need to keep going, be driven by our own standards and run our own race. Winning makes that easier and I must compliment the leadership for getting four points under these conditions: against a very desperate Bulls side at altitude,” Coetzee said.

If anyone ever wanted proof that a new broom sweeps clean in rugby, they need look no further than new Argentina coach Daniel Hourcade’s radically changed team for the opening Rugby Championship clash against South Africa at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.

Argentina have grown accustomed to fielding different squads depending on the occasion and the sides that played their previous international, against Scotland in Cordoba; their last match of 2013, against Italy in Rome; and their previous Rugby Championship fixture, versus the Wallabies in Rosario; are all very dissimilar.

Only two players that started the 21-19 defeat to Scotland will feature against the Springboks, while there are nine changes and a positional switch to the side that beat Italy 19-14 and only 11 of the 23 that were hammered 54-17 by Australia have survived for the next Rugby Championship engagement.

Players such as the retired midfield star Felipe Contepomi, injured wing Juan Imhoff, hooker Eusebio Guinazu and experienced locks Patricio Albacete and Manuel Carizza are all conspicuous by their absence, but Hourcade struck a defiant tone when announcing the team on Thursday.

“It is a young team without much experience, but they are quality players with a lot of capacity. We believe that we have very good players in this side and we want to give them experience and support them,” Hourcade said.

The new Pumas coach acknowledges that his team are the underdogs against the Springboks, who thrashed them 73-13 a year ago in Soweto, but he believes they can help grow his side.

“South Africa are a great team, with a very good coach and a very strong mentality. They are at the point of ascending.

“But this is an excellent chance for us to build as a team. We’re prepared for what South Africa will bring.

“Last year’s match here we will take as part of our experience, it was down to attitude and it was an important lesson. It was part of the process, we will learn off those results and continue that process,” the 56-year-old said.

One area where Argentina do traditionally boast plenty of firepower is in the scrum and the presence of Leicester Tigers veteran Marcos Ayerza in the number one jersey will certainly pique the interest of Springbok tightheads Jannie du Plessis and Frans Malherbe.

“Argentina are always a big test, but I’m looking forward to it. I haven’t played them before and I haven’t scrummed against them.

“It’s a massive opportunity for me to secure my spot as the back-up tighthead and it’s all up to me to take it, that’s the bottom line. It comes down to my primary role, if I don’t do that well then I won’t be selected, but the goal is to become a more modern forward, with more mobility and ball skills,” Malherbe said.

While Argentina have been understandably conservative in their first two years of Rugby Championship participation, Hourcade says they need to do more with the ball if they are to beat one of the big three.

“When we consider the teams we are playing against, then we have to take risks. If we just play slowly then all we are doing is trying to stop the inevitable ending, we know we will lose.

“We need to move the ball more and play quicker, it does have risks but we assume that risk. We will make some mistakes, but that’s part of the game and the only way to grow this team,” Hourcade said.

Centres Juan-Martin Hernandez and Marcelo Bosch are certainly looking forward to getting their hands on the ball more often.

“For me personally, I prefer to have the ball in my hands rather than having to tackle. I’m happier with the current approach, but we know we are playing against the three best teams in the world and it will be tough.

“There’s a lot of responsibility on us to manage the ball, but first of all we have to obtain the ball. There are steps you have to go through before you can play that style,” outside centre Bosch said.

As positive as the Pumas might want to be, the numbers that matter will be amongst the forwards, in terms of securing first-phase possession, dominating the gain-line and winning turnovers.

A number that may be decisive is  140 – the difference between the 411 Test caps the Springbok pack and five replacements have, compared to the 271 of their counterparts.

Argentina team (caps in brackets): 15-Joaquin Tuculet (11), 14-Horacio Agulla (51), 13-Marcelo Bosch (25), 12-Juan-Martin Hernandez (44), 11-Manuel Montero (13), 10-Nicolas Sanchez (21), 9-Martin Landajo (31), 8-Juan-Manuel Leguizamon (55), 7-Juan-Martin Fernandez Lobbe (56), 6-Pablo Matera (11), 5-Tomas Lavanini (9), 4-Mariano Galarza (18), 3-Ramiro Herrera (2), 2-Agustin Creevy (28), 1-Marcos Ayerza (48). Substitutes – 16-Matias Cortese (7), 17-Lucas Noguera Paz (5), 18-Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro (7), 19-Matias Alemanno (5), 20-Leonardo Senatore (20), 21-Tomas Cubelli (25), 22-Santiago Gonzalez Iglesias (7), 23-Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino (33).

The Springboks have placed enormous faith in young flyhalf Handre Pollard to start in the pivot position in their opening Rugby Championship match against Argentina at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday, but coach Heyneke Meyer believes the 20-year-old has already earned such trust.

Pollard retains his berth as the starting flyhalf after his impressive debut against Scotland at the end of June, relegating veteran Morne Steyn to the bench. Meyer must have been tempted to go with the experience of Steyn, especially since Damian de Allende will be making his debut in midfield, and Ruan Pienaar, Bryan Habana and Jean de Villiers are all coming off extended absences from the field of play.

But there’s no doubting the Springbok coach’s high regard for Pollard.

“Handre is only 20, but he’s very mature and he has an experienced head on his shoulders. I’ve seen him playing since he was 15 and he has always impressed me as an unbelievable prospect.

“He’s one of the few flyhalves to have both a brilliant attacking game and a tactical game. You don’t find that a lot, the name Dan Carter springs to mind, most flyhalves have one or the other,” Meyer said on Wednesday.

“It’s a tough position and a flyhalf must have leadership qualities as well because the players must trust him. They expect him to stay cool and calm and make the right decisions and they must want to give him the ball.

“Handre is also big and tall for a flyhalf and most teams now attack in the 10/12 channel, but he’s big enough to knock back guys, even big forwards. There are no grey areas in his game and I believe a lot in him.”

While the likes of Juan de Jongh and S’Bura Sithole have both surely done enough to warrant consideration at outside centre, Meyer has backed what he sees as De Allende’s potential in the number 13 jersey.

The 23-year-old is yet to play outside centre in SuperRugby, but he played there at school and had one Currie Cup outing in that position for Western Province against the Blue Bulls last year.

He certainly has the attributes to make a success of his new-found role, being big, strong and quick, while also having fine hands.

“I was really impressed with Damian in SuperRugby. I always look at players when they are playing away in tough conditions and I like his mental toughness.

“He’s a big guy but he’s skilful as well, he has the soft touches, runs beautiful lines and gets the ball away. I think he can bring another dimension to our backline and I feel he can be superb at 13,” Meyer said.

The other notable feature of the Springbok team announced on Wednesday was Lood de Jager shifting from number four to number five lock, to replace the injured Victor Matfield.

South Africa’s most-capped player has stayed with the squad to lend his considerable wisdom to De Jager, and Meyer is confident that the 21-year-old can make another step in his meteoric rise and run the lineouts.

“It wasn’t that easy to select at number five, but Lood is intelligent enough to run the lineout and, even though he’s been a typical number four, I’ve always felt that we could groom him at five.

“He’s one of the most improved players I’ve worked with and he has an unbelievable future. Eben Etzebeth can also play five, but he hasn’t played for a while, plus Lood is very good outside of the lineouts as well,” Meyer said.

Bakkies Botha will make his first Rugby Championship start since 2011 alongside De Jager, with Etzebeth as cover on the bench.

Tendai Mtawarira starts at loosehead prop, to extend the South African record with Bismarck and Jannie du Plessis as a front-row trio to 17 Tests.

Jan Serfontein, after his excellent performances in the incoming Tests, will get the chance to put in a hard-hitting 20 minutes off the bench on Saturday, while Francois Hougaard is the reserve scrumhalf to Ruan Pienaar.

In the absence of Fourie du Preez, Meyer admitted that their service has to speed up in the Rugby Championship.

“I always thought Test rugby would become more of an arm-wrestle, but more tries than ever are being scored and the game is getting quicker and quicker. So all the scrumhalves in South Africa need to play at a higher tempo if we’re going to be the best. They need to up it because we need to speed up our ball. We need ball on the front foot because we have a big flyhalf and centres that attack the line.”

Meyer said Argentina would require the Springboks’ full focus on Saturday.

“It’s always tough against Argentina because they are a contesting team, they contest for the ball in every facet of the game. The scrum is always a huge contest and they’re one of the best teams at the breakdown.

“They have a new coach [Daniel Hourcade] so they’re going to play with a lot of passion and lately they’ve been moving the ball around more, so they’ll test our defence,” Meyer said.

Springbok team: 15-Willie le Roux, 14-Cornal Hendricks, 13-Damian de Allende, 12-Jean de Villiers, 11-Bryan Habana, 10-Handre Pollard, 9-Ruan Pienaar, 8-Duane Vermeulen, 7-Willem Alberts, 6-Francois Louw, 5-Lood de Jager, 4-Bakkies Botha, 3-Jannie du Plessis, 2-Bismarck du Plessis, 1-Tendai Mtawarira. Replacements – 16-Adriaan Strauss, 17-Trevor Nyakane, 18-Frans Malherbe, 19-Eben Etzebeth, 20-Marcell Coetzee, 21-Francois Hougaard, 22-Morne Steyn, 23-Jan Serfontein.