Ken Borland

Duane Vermeulen must be used to being the object of huge admiration from rugby fans by now, so it was nice on Thursday to hear the talismanic Springbok eighthman almost gush over the prospect of teaming up with Marcell Coetzee for the first time in the Bulls’ loose trio when they take on the Stormers in their massive Rainbow Cup clash at Loftus Versfeld on Friday night.

Coetzee, who earned himself legendary status at Ulster when he moved there from the Sharks in 2016, will make his debut for the Bulls on Friday night in a highly-anticipated North/South derby that could well decide who wins the South African leg of the Rainbow Cup.

Vermeulen and Coetzee will be hoping to reproduce their epic performance for the Springboks back in 2014 when they beat the All Blacks 27-25 at Ellis Park to end a five-game losing streak against their great rivals. Vermeulen was immense despite playing with cracked ribs and won the man of the match award.

“Marcell has good character, he has great energy on the field and I’m really looking forward to playing with him again. He’s a good ball-carrier, he has pace to the ball. He’s actually just a really well-rounded player – he tackles and carries the ball well, and can play to the ball.

“And it’s going to be nice to have young Elrigh Louw playing with us, he can learn a lot from Marcell now too. Marcell is really experienced and he can back me up on decision-making as well,” Vermeulen said on Thursday.

Vermeulen is no stranger to playing with pain to this day, and Bulls coach Jake White said it was the courage of his captain that eggs his team-mates on to greater heights.

“Every week Duane is in the doctor’s room getting things drained out of his knee. He could hold back every week, he could say ‘Coach, I need a break’. But he always fronts up, it’s why he has achieved what he has and with that sort of leader I know I’ll have no problem with any other players. I don’t feel like anyone is not going to put their body on the line and give their absolute best,” White said.

The coach was similarly excited about being able to pick Coetzee, saying he can play in each of the loose-forward positions, but adding the Bulls’ combination of Vermeulen, Louw and Coetzee, with Marco van Staden on the bench, is probably the best in global club rugby.

White also praised his conditioning staff for ensuring Coetzee and fellow Springboks Ivan van Zyl and Gio Aplon have all been able to return to action in a crucial match in which the Bulls will need all the quality they can get against a powerful Stormers team that is gaining momentum.

Bulls team: David Kriel, Madosh Tambwe, Marco Jansen van Vuren, Cornal Hendricks, Stravino Jacobs, Morné Steyn, Ivan van Zyl, Duane Vermeulen (C), Elrigh Louw, Marcell Coetzee, Ruan Nortje, Walt Steenkamp, Mornay Smith, Johan Grobbelaar, Gerhard Steenekamp. Bench – Schalk Erasmus, Jacques van Rooyen, Trevor Nyakane, Janko Swanepoel, Marco van Staden, Zak Burger, Chris Smith, Gio Aplon.

South Africa’s director of rugby Rassie Erasmus said on Friday that the British and Irish Lions tour is special because so much else in the sport has lost its sparkle. The rugby landscape used to be like a tastefully decorated room with a few classic furnishings; now it has become a gaudy space covered in floral chintz and kitsch.

But Erasmus, who made his Test debut in the final match of the 1997 Lions tour, and Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber were clearly like kids on the night before Christmas on Friday when they unveiled their planning for the epic series against the best of Britain and Ireland, with the South African squad confirmed to be announced next Saturday.

“It was really special to play my first Test in the third match of that series, but I was 24 years old and maybe didn’t understand as much how special it was. The players get it now: playing against the Lions is a rare, special thing. There are a lot of things in rugby that are not special anymore because we have so many different matches now.
“So it’s going to be fantastic to have the Lions here, even with no crowds. It only happens every 12 years, it’s like a World Cup final and we nearly missed out on it because it couldn’t be postponed, that would have messed up the whole schedule for overseas countries for the next 10 years. So we would rather have it with no crowds than not have it, we were even willing to play anywhere in the world,” Erasmus said on Friday.
While SA Rugby will continue efforts to have some spectators allowed at the games, Erasmus said they were mindful of ensuring they do the right thing.
“We’re preparing as if there will be no crowds, which will have a massive effect on how it feels at the ground, in terms of home advantage and on the way we communicate. But most of the players have exeprienced this before.
“We are trying really hard to have crowds allowed, but we are also very serious about following the government regulations. Hopefully government can see that we are reliable and supportive and maybe things will change. Even 25% capacity in one of the big stadiums would be a good crowd,” Erasmus said.
The director of rugby confirmed that the entire Springbok squad and management would be vaccinated against Covid-19 before going into a had bubble for the series.

South Africa’s director of rugby Rassie Erasmus on Friday confirmed that next Saturday, June 5, will be the day when the 45 lucky South African rugby players who get to play the British and Irish Lions will be announced.

That enlarged squad will go into a hard bubble together and will see their first action nearly a month later in the first Test against Georgia. The initial group will also comprise the 23 players that will represent SA A against the tourists in Cape Town on July 14. The squad will then be cut to 35-37 players ahead of the first Test against the Lions on July 24.

Both Erasmus and Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber said they were heartened by having plenty of talent to choose from.

“In a way we are lucky to have players all over the world because our players in South Africa have just been playing against each other. But a guy like Jasper Wiese has done really well for Leicester, Rynhardt Elstadt and Cheslin Kolbe won the European Cup with Toulouse and Damian de Allende has been doing really well at Munster. We also have wonderful young talent locally, so we look pretty okay,” Erasmus said.

“Three players from the World Cup squad have retired and Lood de Jager, RG Snyman and Warrick Gelant are touch-and-go with injuries, but the rest are all in the running. The Tests against Georgia fall within the international window and we’ll have other goals against them but we still need to perform and win,” Nienaber added.

“There’s been a joint effort from the referees, coaches and players to get as much ball-in-play time as possible in our local rugby and there has been a massive improvement from the Currie Cup. We were a bit worried but comparing the figures to the Premiership and the Pro14, there’s good parity now and we are really happy.”

Covid-19 vaccines are not yet freely available to most South Africans, but the Springbok rugby squad is going to get early vaccinations before they embark on their hectic schedule of international games both at home and overseas.

The Springboks, as well as those named in South Africa’s Olympic Games squad, will be getting the last thousand doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine used in the Sisonke project to inoculate health workers. If these vaccines are not used in the next week or so, they will go to waste.

The South African Medical Research Council (MRC) are behind the Springboks being vaccinated, saying it will enable them to travel much more easily by the middle of June and do their jobs, fulfilling their ambassadorial roles for South Africa. Waiting for the Pfizer vaccinations would not be practical because that requires two doses 42 days apart and then another 14-day wait before recipients are cleared for travel.

SA Rugby, whose financial survival depends on the Springboks getting back on to the field and playing this year, have said they will not comment on the matter, but sources close to the Springbok team have confirmed they are going to be vaccinated soon.

The Springboks host Georgia for two warm-up Tests on July 3 and July 10 before heading into their high-stakes series against the British and Irish Lions. After that the Rugby Championship starts in August with two Tests against Argentina in South Africa, before the Springboks are on their way to Australasia, where travel restrictions are very strict, to play the remainder of the tournament.

The move will be seen as controversial in some quarters because there has already been lots of criticism of ‘queue jumpers’ getting the vaccine before the over-60s who are meant to be protected first.

But the Olympic Games are scheduled start in less than two months on July 23, so those participants don’t have time to wait.

MRC head Professor Glenda Gray has said elite sportspeople will be part of the many clinical trials that will be ongoing while the vaccines are being rolled out nationwide. With case numbers rising, the country is widely predicted to go into a third wave of infections as it heads into winter.

South Africa is behind most developed nations in terms of vaccine roll-out and the Springboks, who have not played since winning the World Cup in November 2019, are in danger of falling behind the rest of the rugby-playing world.