Ken Borland

Bulls coach Jake White has refused to release an injury report this week ahead of their SuperRugby Unlocked opener against Griquas at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday night, and the reason became clear on Thursday when he announced a team missing several of the stars from their impressive warm-up against the Sharks a fortnight ago.

White has decided not to risk the “niggling” injuries captain Duane Vermeulen, dazzling new wing Kurt-Lee Arendse and experienced loose forward Nizaam Carr have suffered and he has also been shorn of the services of hooker Schalk Erasmus for six weeks, after surgery on a twisted ankle.

So flank Arno Botha, who has made an impressive return to South African rugby, will lead the team against Griquas and Tim Agaba will start at eighthman. The tall David Kriel looked a threat when he came on in the second half against the Sharks and he will replace Arendse at left wing, while the Bulls have good cover at hooker with Corniel Els starting and the exciting young Johan Grobbelaar on the bench.

“Duane has a bang on the leg from last week’s Springbok Showdown and he’ll be fine, but with us playing for five weeks in a row we cannot afford to risk him pushing through. We can afford to give other guys opportunity though and it’s a great chance to see how Tim, who everyone speaks highly of, goes along with the first-choice pack.

“Kurt-Lee is also injured, he has a contusion on his quad and for someone who needs to run a lot, that’s a risk. He’ll be ready next week. Schalk has had an operation on an ankle roll and we know he’ll be ready in six weeks, whereas if we’d treated it conservatively it could reoccur. Nizaam has a bang on his knee so I couldn’t pick him.

“All the teams seem to have a lot of niggles because of the lack of rugby and contact. I suppose I could pick these guys if I really wanted to, but we can’t afford it with our schedule if they have niggles. That’s why I don’t want to give my injury report on a Monday because then the opposition then basically knows my team at the start of the week and I wanted to see if some of these guys could pull through,” White said on Thursday.

The one area where White has taken something of a risk is at tighthead prop, however, with Trevor Nyakane chosen despite spending the week in Cape Town in quarantine because he had been in close proximity with fellow Springbok Oupa Mohoje, who has tested positive for Covid-19.

“Trevor had a training program in Cape Town and he’s been able to stick to that. Of course it’s not ideal that he hasn’t trained with us, but he’s a Springbok and important to us. He knows how we play, he’s been at every session except the last two weeks. We’ll start with him and then if he gets fatigued then we can bring the reserve [Mornay Smith] on,” White explained.

Grobbelaar has recently got over his own struggle with Covid-19 and with Lizo Gqoboka recovered from injury and starting loosehead Jacques van Rooyen having arrived at the Bulls and impressed, the Pretoria side have plenty of front-row experience for a clash in which the first battle will be up front.

Team – Gio Aplon, Travis Ismaiel, Stedman Gans, Cornal Hendricks, David Kriel, Morne Steyn, Ivan van Zyl, Tim Agaba, Arno Botha, Marco van Staden, Ruan Nortje, Jason Jenkins, Trevor Nyakane, Corniel Els, Jacques van Rooyen. Replacements: Johan Grobbelaar, Lizo Gqoboka, Mornay Smith, Sintu Manjezi, Elrigh Louw, Embrose Papier, Chris Smith, Marco Jansen van Vuren.

Sharks assistant coach Ryan Strudwick thinks there may have been some underestimation of the Pumas by some of the inexperienced members of their squad, leading to their chastening 33-24 defeat in Nelspruit in their Currie Cup opener last weekend.

“We spoke all week about them taking it to us physically, but I don’t think the guys expected it to be that hard. They underestimated the Pumas, there were eight guys in our side who were new to Currie Cup rugby, and I think they were shellshocked to some extent.

“Nelspruit is not an easy place to go and the intensity of a match situation is a lot different to whatever you’ve had in the warm-ups,” Strudwick said.

The former Sharks, Harlequins and London Irish lock said the major problem area for the Sharks was the set-pieces, while the biggest plus was the second-half comeback that saw the KwaZulu-Natalians close a 7-27 gap at the break to just nine points.

“It was a very disappointing start to the campaign, both in terms of the result and the way we played. They outmuscled us and we made way too many mistakes. But we won the second half so there are a lot of positives from that, that got the confidence up a bit. The defence let through three tries though and the lineouts and scrums were massive problem areas,” Strudwick admitted.

Flank Khaya Majola and wing S’Bura Sithole are both on the doubtful list with niggles for the Sharks’ match against the EP Kings in Durban on Saturday, with the team set to be announced on Thursday.

The shoulder and ankle injuries suffered by Lourens Adriaanse and Thomas du Toit respectively have seen the Sharks issue an SOS for Leopards prop John-Roy Jenkinson, a Glenwood High School product and 2011 Junior Springbok, to join them for the remainder of the Currie Cup campaign, while the loose trio could also be shuffled with Jean-Luc du Preez having a leg injury.

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South Africa opener Dean Elgar said on Thursday night that the one thing a batsman can bank on at international level is that your head is always on the chopping block following what he described as the “unsettling” axing of his opening partner Stephen Cook for the last Test against New Zealand.

The Proteas returned to Johannesburg on Thursday night after rain spared them the likelihood of defeat on the final day of the third Test, allowing them to win the series 1-0, but there are still rumblings over the controversial decision to drop Cook, who scored only 17 runs in four innings but had made three centuries in his previous nine Tests.

Theunis de Bruyn was then forced to make his Test debut as a makeshift opener, without success.

“We had a good thing going but selection is out of the players’ control, it’s one of those things. It’s not easy for Stephen, I’ve been through it before and you can go into a dark place. The team has still been winning though, so it’s very difficult, especially when you know how much hard work he has put in and he’s a massive team guy.

“But the general thing with batsmen is that if you think you’re safe, you’re not. Your head is always on the chopping block and a good ball or a bad decision could cost you your spot. It’s unsettling that a guy like him can be left out when he’s been working his butt off,” Elgar said at O.R. Tambo International Airport upon the team’s return.

South Africa’s success – they won the T20, ODI and Test series – in New Zealand on pitches that closely approximate the conditions they will find in England for the Champions Trophy and a much-anticipated Test series, suggest they are on track to do well on that tour in mid-year.

“We feel we are nicely set up for England having won all three series, which doesn’t happen often in New Zealand,” assistant coach Adrian Birrell said. “Obviously we’re all gearing up for the Champions Trophy and the fact that we won the ODI series 3-2 by winning what was like a final at Eden Park will be good going forward.

“Conditions were probably closest to what we will find on the England tour, there was always seam movement but not excessive bounce, which is what we expect in England. We’ve used various combinations and we have an idea for what works. We’re particularly pleased that all-rounders came to the fore and that batsmen in the lower-order were winning us games.”

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The Springboks’ European tour-opener against the Barbarians this weekend is the perfect game to see some of the up-and-coming players in action before three tough Tests coming up against England, Italy and Wales.

Obviously the Barbarians fixture was put in place some time ago, probably by Heyneke Meyer, who would have wanted a warm-up game before taking on England. So the Barbarians team is not that strong, in matches before they have sometimes been like a World XV and players like Ma’a Nonu, Matt Giteau and Drew Mitchell have appeared for them against the Springboks.

Normally the game against the BaaBaas is at the end of the tour when they are far stronger, it’s a bit of an anomaly but I think it’s a blessing to have the match at the start of the trip.

Saturday’s outing gives a chance to some of the leading lights of the Currie Cup and SuperRugby, and it could be a completely different Springbok team next weekend against England – I think Allister Coetzee will choose a very experienced side, but the Barbarians match allows him a good couple of weeks to work with the fringe players. In preparing for the BaaBaas, they’ve been given a taste of Springbok rugby and it has also given Allister a chance to work more closely with these players and see how they fit in with his plans.

So it’s basically three weeks preparation for the England match and a chance for the staff to bed down as well. The Springboks are on to their third defence coach this year in JP Ferreira and he will obviously bring new ideas and skills, plus Franco Smith has joined the management. You normally don’t have that long to assimilate new ideas, but this time they can sort out their roles and responsibilities and Allister can see how they all gel together.

Choosing nine uncapped players in his squad to play the Barbarians has basically been forced on the Springboks, but Allister Coetzee understands the situation and he and Matt Proudfoot are both enlightened coaches when it comes to the benefits of having players in Japan.

There is a large amount of South African players spending their off-season in Japan, with the full blessing of their SuperRugby unions because they have signed dual contracts. It’s a win-win situation and, for example, someone like Lions CEO Rudolf Straeuli, with all his experience and wisdom, has a lot of his players on dual contracts. He knows it’s the best way to keep them in South Africa and not lose them to Europe.

For example, Franco Mostert was on his way to Olympique Lyon, but has now renewed his contract with the Lions and has signed to play in Japan as well. Louis Schreuder, Jaco Kriel, Lionel Mapoe and Patrick Osborne all spend their off-season with Kubota before going back to SuperRugby.

In fact, they actually spend very little time on the field because a team can only have three overseas players on the park at any given time. So all the main teams have a rotation policy such that the players don’t play too much but have sufficient time in action. For example, Jaco Kriel came off the bench for us last weekend to play the last 30 minutes, when he got injured, while Lionel Mapoe has only played in two of our four games since he came over.

The Japanese teams are all company-based with a mix of amateur and professional players. Our amateur guys are in their companies’ offices from 8am to 1pm and then they travel out to Funabashi where we are based. They are all totally committed to the cause and their work ethic and work rate are second to none – they’re always doing extra time after training working on things, it really is quite a thing to see.

Frans Ludeke and myself are part of a three-strong foreign coaching group, while we also have three Japanese coaches, who serve as translators.

Most of the teams also have links to SuperRugby franchises – for example while Allister Coetzee was here his Kobe team had links to Dave Rennie and his Chiefs side, while for us it’s with the Hurricanes. So there’s an exchange of ideas and the professional development of coaches.

Anyway, back to the Springboks and they actually have a really good record in Europe lately, having won 16 of their last 21 end-of-year Tests.

Under Heyneke, we had an 80% win record and in 2012 and 2013 we were highly successful, with wins over first Ireland, Scotland and England, and then the next year good triumphs against Wales, Scotland and France. We only lost in 2014 against Ireland and Wales, also when we didn’t have overseas-based players and Wales actually paid for their players to be released.

So in the last four seasons the Springboks have a tremendous record in the Northern Hemisphere and they only conceded half-a-dozen tries in that time, so the defence has been good.

This year the Barbarians will just have a basic framework to play within, but a Brendan Venter-coached Italy are waiting in the middle and it certainly won’t be easy against England and Wales.

To beat them, there are some key areas to get right, like the lineout maul.

England scored twice against us in 2014 with the drive, one of them being from 50 metres out, so the Springboks need to both stop the maul and execute it well themselves. I would like to see one of South Africa’s traditional strengths back in play.

In that same 2014 game we scored against England with a pre-planned move against the rush defence that had Pat Lambie kicking out to Willie le Roux, and playing in that weather means you have to kick well and win the territory battle.

The ability to dominate the collisions in secondary defence is another key thing the Springboks need to get back so they can produce front-foot ball on attack. Jean-Luc du Preez is a strong ball-carrier and tackler and the sort of blindside flank we need, plus he’s tall enough to be a lineout option.

I also know Roelof Smit very well because he waited a long time at the Bulls for a chance, he was very patient behind Deon Stegmann. He can certainly get over the ball and is very hard to shift, while he also has carrying ability and is very good at controlling the maul at the back. He’s a traditional openside flank and he has the physical attributes.

I hope the Springboks emerge with four good wins and then everything will be alright again in South African rugby.

John McFarland is the assistant coach of the Kubota Spears in Japan and was the Springbok defence coach from 2012-15, having won three SuperRugby titles (2007, 09, 10) with the Bulls and five Currie Cup crowns with the Blue Bulls. In all, he won 28 trophies during his 12 years at Loftus Versfeld.