Ken Borland

Bulls coach Jake White on Thursday said he is confident his decision to bring utility back Gio Aplon and tighthead prop Marcel van der Merwe back down south for SuperRugby will bear fruit for the new-look Pretoria franchise.

White has first-hand knowledge of the qualities of the two Springboks, having seen both shine in French rugby when he was in charge at Montpellier up until 2017. The World Cup winning coach then took Aplon, capped 17 times by South Africa, with him from Grenoble to Toyota Verblitz when he first moved to Japan for the 2017/18 season.

Van der Merwe, who played seven Tests in 2014-15, joined Toulon from the Bulls in mid-2016 and became a regular for the powerful outfit. The 29-year-old can only have benefited from the emphasis on set-piece play in the Northern Hemisphere.

“Gio is a very talented rugby player and I’m surprised he did not play more Test rugby for South Africa. People may question his age because he’s 37-years-old but I’ve worked with him for the last three years in Japan and he is still in very good shape and is as professional as anyone in looking after himself. Plus given the nature of rugby in Japan, those three years should allow him to play for longer.

“So that’s why I’ve brought him over for one more year of top rugby and it’s not as if we have to pay him something over the top either. I believe he can have the same effect as Schalk Brits and look at the impact he made at the Bulls last year. Gio has that sort of personality which I just feel can be very important to the group I’m getting together,” White told The Citizen on Thursday.

Van der Merwe may be coming from the trenches of French rugby but SuperRugby is arguably the toughest competition in the game, with a big attrition rate among the forwards and White is ensuring he has two top-class tighthead props now.

“The old saying that the most important position in a rugby team is tighthead prop and the second most important position is the reserve tighthead is true. So we now have a very good Springbok in Trevor Nyakane there and another Springbok in Marcel so we are in a comfortable position. Marcel was a massive force at Toulon and won all sorts of championships with them.

“At 29 years old he is still reasonably young as a frontrower and he has played all over the world, so he has had to adapt his game and he is older and wiser now, with a massive amount of experience. But the most important factor for me is that he has an unbelievable, burning desire to play for South Africa again, he is very driven to get back into the Springboks,” White said.

The vibrant Loftus Park piazza as viewed from the Protea Hotel

If you are one of the many fans of the Bulls from outside of the Pretoria region, when was the last time you made the pilgrimage to Loftus Versfeld?

Fortunately in these tough economic times, the new mixed-use development next door to the stadium – Loftus Park – is going to make it much easier for out-of-town visitors to come and watch their favourite team, whether that be the Bulls or Premier Soccer League giants Sundowns.

The new Protea Hotel by Marriott Pretoria Loftus Park is a four-star oasis and yet you can get a room in this well-appointed, modern establishment for as little as R1045 per night.

And the rooms are spacious, overlooking a piazza that offers a host of eating and shopping options, or the greater Pretoria area, with most of the historic landmarks such as the Voortrekker Monument and the Union Buildings visible.

A room at Protea Hotel Loftus Park

There is also plenty of underground parking, which costs just R40 a day. All-in-all, Protea Loftus Park is just the perfect solution for travelling fans wanting to watch a game at Loftus Stadium: Avoid the rush and crush, stay at the hotel and then just simply stroll the 100 metres or so to the stadium.

For after the game, Protea Loftus Park boasts a truly jamming venue in the Skyline Bar, Restaurant and Lounge. This rooftop venue features a pool, live music on weekends and a fantastic selection of food and drinks.

The swimming pool at Skyline on top of the hotel

My wife and I were hugely content with our steaks – fillet for her, T-bone for me – which were full of flavour, expertly cooked and decent-size helpings as well.

We also thoroughly enjoyed some churros that were brilliantly done – crispy on the outside, light as a feather on the inside and accompanied by a divine dark chocolate sauce. My wife said they tasted as if angels had farted on her tongue.

Best of all, a very attentive staff ensures that they are always close-at-hand to provide superb service that is not too intrusive.

For those that are not interested in the epic sporting battles going on next door, or who have time to kill before or after the big game, the hotel can organise a guided tour of Pretoria. Even though I know the Jacaranda City well, that was one of the highlights of our weekend, being both highly-informative and great fun.

The sun sets over the capital … and a wonderful weekend … as seen from Protea Loftus Park

All roads will lead to Pretoria for the country’s leading schoolboy cricketers over the September 21-24 long weekend with the launch of the North-South T20 Competition organised by the Waterkloof, Menlopark and Centurion high schools.

Sixteen of South Africa’s top school cricket teams have been invited – the three hosts and Nelspruit High School, four Cape schools, four from the northern regions and four from the coastal areas. They have been divided into four groups, comprising one team from each of the categories, with the top two in each pool going into the quarterfinals and semi-finals on Sunday, September 23, followed by the finals on the Monday, 24^th.

The grand final will be played at Tuks Cricket Oval and the schools will be competing for prizemoney of R100 000, R50 000 going to the winners, R25 000 to the other finalist, R15 000 for third place and R10 000 for the winners of the Plate competition, which has been included to ensure teams play cricket right through to the Monday.

Waterkloof are in Group A and will be joined by Bishops from Cape Town, Bloemfontein powerhouses Grey College and KwaZulu-Natal’s Westville High. Group B features Nelspruit, Paarl Gim, Rustenburg and Glenwood; Centurion host Group C with SACS, Potch Volkskool and Northwood taking them on, while Group D will be contested by hosts Menlopark and visitors Wynberg BHS, NoordKaap and St Andrew’s all the way from Grahamstown.

Leading umpire Johan Cloete is one of the founders of the tournament and is serving as the inaugural chairman.

“We want to have national status in the near future, we want to make it the most successful schools competition. The teams, with more than 200 boys participating, will all be based at Camp Discovery, where there are fields to practise and they can interact afterwards, while PitchVision will live-stream two games a day. The fact we have AB de Villiers as the ambassador for the tournament speaks volumes for how far we want to go.

“For the duration of the tournament, sponsors WeBuyCars.co.za are offering discounts of between two to eight thousand rand for all parents, players, organisers or coaches, while we have also had great support from the Atterbury Trust, WAD Holdings, Glenfair Boulevard, Puma and IXU,” Cloete said.

We have a full house of SuperRugby fixtures this weekend for the local franchises and it will be a very exciting clash in Pretoria as the Bulls, having been given a lot of confidence from their win over the Hurricanes, take on a terrific Lions side.

The Lions have a very proud record of not losing to a South African side for the last three years, while the Bulls have obviously been revitalised under John Mitchell.

I think it will be quite a high-scoring game because both sides are really committed to attack and keeping the ball alive in all situations.

Having been privileged to be able to watch a few of their training sessions, one can certainly see that what the Bulls have been working on came out against the Hurricanes, like the tip-ons and offloads. To see South African forwards display such dexterity and skills – locks Lood de Jager and RG Snyman were especially good – was really wonderful.

The Bulls have also worked a lot on their fitness; for prop Pierre Schoeman to get up and score the matchwinning try, beating five or six Hurricanes defenders to get to the ball and be the first player up in support and show up constantly around the field, was proof of this.

It will be interesting to see whether the team that the Lions announced will be the team that runs out on to the field … it’s very unusual for them to name their team on a Tuesday. It will be very exciting to see Franco Mostert at number seven, however, but I think the Lions will miss another ground player. You really need someone to slow down the ball on the highveld and it was great to see Roelof Smit back to his best for the Bulls, buying time for the defence to set.

The Lions had a really good solid win over the Jaguares and Aphiwe Dyantyi really announced himself with an even better try than he scored in the first round. To see a wing beat international wings for pace and then a sidestep is really special. You can’t coach the sort of things he does on attack, although there are obviously things he needs to work on and defensively he was out of position for the two late tries that cost the Lions the bonus point. But he is one of a lot of exciting young wings in South African rugby, along with the likes of Makazole Mapimpi and Sbu Nkosi.

The Lions might rue those two late tries though because if they end up in the middle of the table then bonus points could be crucial.

The Sharks will be looking to bounce back from their defeat in Johannesburg in the opening round when they take on the Waratahs in Durban, but they really have to scrummage better if they are to be any threat in this competition.

It would possibly have been better if they had chosen Thomas du Toit to come on at tighthead at the back end of the game because then they can start with their specialist tighthead. It would be easier for Thomas to come on when the guys are tired, because in the first 20 minutes scrummaging is certainly much harder and at the start of games, referees are really looking at the scrums.

While with the Springboks between 2012 to 2015 we did some research on how many scrum penalties were awarded at the back end of games and it was certainly a lot less. Which is why it was easier to use Coenie Oosthuizen as a replacement tighthead, although in his early years he was a tighthead at school.

But I expect the Sharks to come out firing after their bye, which would have allowed them to work on a lot of stuff. They were also certainly in the game until the last minute against the Lions in Johannesburg.

Three out of the four South African franchises were in action last weekend and they all put in great performances against overseas opposition. Including the Stormers, whose forwards were absolutely superb in the set-pieces where they really dominated the Waratahs, and were most unfortunate not to win the game. The scrum provides such promising opportunities and for the Stormers to do that against one of the strongest packs was most impressive.

But unfortunately an exit lineout went wrong, the calling system broke down, and the Stormers will rue that as being one they should have won and banked four points.

But when you destroy a pack in the scrum as Steven Kitshoff, Wilco Louw (the incumbent Springbok props) and the tight five did then it’s a really good sign away from home.

The Stormers now tackle the Crusaders in Christchurch after the two New Zealand derbies last weekend were try-fests but a lot of it was illegal. There was some quite clever obstruction around the pillars and cleaning out beyond the ball, which is the job of the assistant referees to spot. In the Dunedin game it was not picked up in two of the tries and the officials need to be a lot more vigilant.

John McFarland is the assistant coach of the Kubota Spears in Japan and was the Springbok defence coach from 2012 through to the 2015 World Cup, where they conceded the least line-breaks in the tournament and an average of just one try per game. Before that, McFarland 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.