Ken Borland

The Bulls have lost the services of Springbok mainstay Trevor Nyakane but probably have five million reasons to be happy to let him go, with coach Jake White saying on Wednesday that he was “comfortable” with the versatile prop’s move.

The 32-year-old Nyakane, who played in 12 of the Springboks’ 13 Tests this year, has signed with French club Racing 92, and will begin his three-year deal in Paris before the end of the month. Nyakane had two more years to run on his Bulls contract, however, and the Pretoria franchise will reportedly receive R5 million from one of the leading clubs in Europe in compensation.

“Trevor is no longer with us, although we were going to give him time off until January anyway,” White said on Wednesday. “He was never going to stay with us forever and post the 2023 World Cup, I didn’t see him playing domestically anyway.

“It was always highly likely that he was going overseas and we haven’t had him for six months anyway, plus we were likely to not have him for big chunks of next year.

“He’s been fantastic for the Bulls and is a great team man, but in terms of return on investment, sometimes it’s the right time to release a player.

“We’re very comfortable letting him go and we are busy planning to get one or two other tightheads in our squad. It’s not ideal losing players overseas, but you don’t want to be paying big money for players if you never see them,” White said.

The former Springbok coach also suggested that the national team might have to go back to their previous policy of having zero overseas-based players in their line-up, in order to protect franchise rugby at home.

“It raises the question whether the policy of picking overseas players for the Springboks is going to last forever? Because long-term that policy is to the detriment of the franchises and that’s a fact,” White said.

“For me, the Irish and Kiwi model, where only home-based players are picked for the national team, works and they have been successful with it. Australia have the Matt Giteau rule allowing more experienced players from overseas to play for the Wallabies.

“At the moment I’m not sure the franchises get a return on investment because you have so many players unavailable for long periods and we have a salary cap. But we are not as affected as the Stormers or Sharks,” White said.

Johan Grobbelaar is not exactly a seasoned hooker at just 23 years old, but he is a Springbok tourist now and is looking forward to his new-found experience rubbing off on the young pups at the Bulls who have had to hold the fort in the United Rugby Championship.

With the international season now over, national call-ups will no longer be a factor, although it is likely someone like Trevor Nyakane will be having a few weeks’ rest before joining the URC fray. But the Bulls should be strengthened for their match against the Sharks in Durban on Friday night by the return of Grobbelaar.

The Paarl Gym product did not make it on to the field for the Springboks, but the experience gained from just being in the set-up for the Rugby Championship in Australia will have made him an even better player.

“The thing about the Bulls is that the knowledge is passed from player to player, maybe that’s why people say Loftus is a locks factory and now it seems to be a bit of a hooker factory too,” Grobbelaar says.

“We have good hookers here now and we are putting pressure on each other as well as helping one another.

“Being with the Springboks was a very good experience, I was surprised and excited to be called up and it was very nice to see how the system works. But now I’m looking forward to playing with the Bulls and getting some game time after a long time off the field.

“The lessons I can pass on are about how small the margins are because there were three Tests we could have won, and how to vasbyt and keep your composure at the end,” Grobbelaar, whose last on-field action came on July 30 in a Currie Cup match against Western Province, said.

No-one would expect Ox Nche, Siya Kolisi, Lukhanyo Am, Makazole Mapimpi or Bongi Mbonambi to turn out for the Sharks following their heroics with the Springboks, but the KwaZulu-Natal outfit could well be boosted by the inclusion of prop Thomas du Toit, scrumhalf Grant Williams and outside backs Aphelele Fassi and Sbu Nkosi, all of whom saw no action in Europe.

The Bulls have lost a leader in Johan Goosen, but captain Marcell Coetzee said on Tuesday that welcoming the player responsible for the Springboks winning the series against the British and Irish Lions back into the squad can only lift the team as they look to finish their first overseas campaign in the United Rugby Championship on a high against Edinburgh on Saturday.

Morne Steyn arrived in Edinburgh on Tuesday, via an overnight flight from Frankfurt, with the Bulls confirming that flyhalf Goosen was headed in the opposite direction, flying back to South Africa to have scans on the knee he injured in last weekend’s momentous win over the Cardiff Blues.

“Johan is a real character and a good leader in the team, and we are bleeding for him,” Coetzee said. “But now we have Morne here, who won the British and Irish Lions series, he has fantastic experience that you just can’t buy.

“It’s going to be awesome to have him with us this week, what a character he is and a legend of Bulls rugby. He is consistent in all he does and I’m sure he’s going to bring energy and enthusiasm that will lift the team.

“Chris Smith also showed his character and resilience when he replaced Johan, I thought he had an excellent game and he carried that flyhalf mantle really well,” the Springbok loose forward added.

Last weekend’s impressive comeback win against Cardiff was vital for the Bulls after they started the competition with chastening defeats against Leinster and Connacht. It’s their last week on a tough tour to a brand new environment, but Coetzee said the Currie Cup champions are hungry for another win this weekend.

“The mood is a bit more positive now after the win, but we want to be consistent. There’s definitely some new energy, we know it’s our last week on tour and there’s plenty to play for.

“We want that same mindset as in the second half against Cardiff when we gave it everything and the passion and character of the team came out.

“We just want a successful end for the tour, having come into a whole new tournament not knowing what to expect. We are still quite a young group, but we are growing by the day.

“Hopefully things are right now and we must make sure we don’t take a step backwards this weekend. Our performance on Saturday will say a lot about how we have grown as a group and how strong our culture is,” Coetzee said.

It’s been awhile since Cornal Hendricks played in midfield for the Bulls but the Springbok will be back there on Saturday night when the Currie Cup champions take on the Cardiff Blues in their United Rugby Championship match at the Arms Park.

The 33-year-old Hendricks was a revelation when coach Jake White moved him from the wing to centre last year upon his arrival at Loftus Versfeld, but he has not played in midfield since the final round-robin game of the Currie Cup, against the Free State Cheetahs on August 28.

And, in a new-look backline that White announced on Friday, Hendricks will be playing outside centre and not in the No.12 jersey where he has previously starred for the Bulls. It’s all to do with the fact that the Bulls are playing for the first time on a 4G pitch, which is a mixture of grass and synthetic turf, and pace will be of the essence.

“The most important thing is how we adapt to the different challenge of the pitch, the pace of the game is going to be very quick, it will challenge both our defence and attack,” White said on Friday.

“I really wanted to play Stedman Gans at 13 with Cornal at 12, but Stedman has a tight hamstring and we couldn’t risk it. That didn’t work out, but fortunately Kurt-Lee Arendse is ready to come back on the wing.

“If Stedman had been fit we could have had almost a Sevens backline with their wonderful feet and stepping. Cornal actually trained a lot at inside centre this week, but Harold Vorster is obviously very accomplished there.

“It’s going to be exciting to see how this backline goes on a nice, hard surface. The surface is so even that you can go flat out and push the tempo big time. Teams can use the pace to outwork teams instead of going through them,” White said.

The veteran coach is delighted to be back at the Cardiff Arms Park and has relished showing his players, some of them on their first British tour, the aluminium plaques, statues and other rugby memorabilia around the Welsh capital. White is expecting a passionate home crowd to make their life even more difficult on Friday night.

“They have smaller crowds over here, but they make the noise of a massive crowd. Plus they have been kept out of watching rugby, so it is still relatively new for them to come and watch games again.

“So there’s going to be a helluva atmosphere, they love rugby in Wales, this is real rugby country. We see the plaques and pictures of rugby legends in the shops, and it’s a wonderful experience for the juniors to be here. And it’s nice for me to show them all the rugby history,” White said.

Bulls team:David Kriel, Madosh Tambwe, Cornal Hendricks, Harold Vorster, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Johan Goosen, Embrose Papier; Elrigh Louw, Jacques du Plessis, Marcell Coetzee (CAPT), Ruan Nortje, Janko Swanepoel, Jacques van Rooyen, Bismarck du Plessis, Simphiwe Matanzima. Bench – Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Lizo Gqoboka, Robert Hunt, Walt Steenkamp, Arno Botha, Keagan Johannes, Chris Smith, Lionel Mapoe.