Ken Borland

Jake White has always leaned on plenty of planning in his selection strategies but the announcement of the Springbok and SA A squads to tour Europe on Friday hearsed some of his intentions for Sunday’s United Rugby Championship derby against the Sharks at Loftus Versfeld.

The most obvious surprise in the national squads was the omission of Johan Goosen from the main Springbok squad, although he is in the SA A party. White certainly expected his ace flyhalf to be pushing for selection for the Test against Ireland on November 5. To be fair to the national selectors though, Goosen has taken longer than expected to hit top form after a serious knee injury, and his progress was also disrupted by an untimely concussion.

“Johan Goosen is back and will play at fullback. I really wanted him to play at flyhalf, but I thought he would be away with the Springboks this weekend and I told Chris Smith a long time ago that he maybe won’t play much for us at the start of the season, but when Goosen goes I will need him,” White revealed on Friday.

“But it’s worked out nicely with the way we want to play; the Sharks kick a lot, so they’ll be kicking to Johan and he has the same sort of skill set in some ways as Kurt-Lee Arendse. So it’s a bit of a like-for-like swop.

“We have an incredible couple of months ahead – flying and coming back and flying again, playing on Christmas Eve and Old Year’s Eve – so there’s a lot of juggling and planning.

“And there are still national team call-ups and the World Cup build-up to consider. And then you get two or three injuries and the whole thing changes,” White said.

The Sharks are shorn of all their frontline Springboks – with the Bulls actually having eight Test caps in their squad compared to the six of the visitors – but White made a point of stressing that they are still a top-class outfit.

“It doesn’t matter who the Sharks come with, they are still a marquee team worth R450 million,” White chirped. “It’s going to be a massive game, they’re bringing six forwards on the bench, which is a wonderful place to be for a Bulls coach, it’s like the old days.

“The Sharks are an unbelievable team, but the pressure is on them. They haven’t been favourites at Loftus for a long time, but now they apparently are.

“It’s always a big game against the Sharks because all the big names play for them. So I hope buses fuill of our supporters come and we can give them a good game.

“The only way we can make Loftus a fortress is if everyone comes. It’s a Sunday afternoon and I want to see all the pink for cancer jerseys, or the blue ones, but no black jerseys,” White said.

Bulls: Johan Goosen, David Kriel, Cornal Hendricks, Harold Vorster, Sbu Nkosi, Chris Smith, Zak Burger, WJ Steenkamp, Marco van Staden, Marcell Coetzee (C), Ruan Nortje, Walt Steenkamp, Francois Klopper, Bismarck du Plessis, Gerhard Steenekamp. Impact – Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Simphiwe Matanzima, Mornay Smith, Janko Swanepoel, Ruan Vermaak, Embrose Papier, Stravino Jacobs, Wandisile Simelane.

Springbok centre Francois Venter is a man who brings leadership and rugby intelligence to the field, and his inclusion in the Sharks starting XV for their United Rugby Championship derby against the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld on Sunday highlights the experienced midfield the franchise is building.

The 31-year-old former Free State Cheetahs star, who has played seven Tests, was part of the unfortunate Worcester Warriors team that went into liquidation, and the Sharks snapped him up to join the other strong group of centres they have. Lukhanyo Am, who should be back in action in early December, is a seasoned Springbok and world leader in midfield, 28-year-old Rohan Janse van Rensburg is in the prime of his career and Ben Tapuai is a 33-year-old Wallaby who has experience playing in both hemispheres.

“Francois brings a lot of experience, he has played at international level and in the UK,” Sharks director of rugby Neil Powell said on Friday. “He has a lot of rugby IQ.

“Our attack coach Noel McNamara has been very impressed with him over the last two weeks and how quickly he has understood what is expected in terms of our attacking principles and system.

“Francois has an amazing work ethic, he’s a good guy. He has caught up very quickly with what he needs to know and I’m looking forward to seeing how he goes.

“Hopefully Francois can bring some stability, and with Rohan coming back for the Cardiff game after the international window and Lukhanyo targeting the Ospreys game in early December, we have a few centres with good experience, plus Marnus Potgieter and Murray Koster in the squad,” Powell said.

Of course, having all these playing resources attracts both expectation and naysayers, and, shorn of their regular Springboks, there will be no sterner test of their form than travelling to Loftus Versfeld to take on the Bulls.

“There’s not just expectation from the franchise owners but from ourselves as management and players,” Powell said. “The key is the pressure we put on our ourselves to succeed.

“There’s an opportunity to do things differently now, and there will be a few changes. But the union is in a really good place, even though we’re just at the beginning of our journey.

“We know it is always a physical battle playing the Bulls at home, especially amongst the forwards. It’s going to take a good 80-minute game for us to win. We’ll be in trouble if we don’t stand up to them physically and play for 80 minutes.

“We need to put pressure on them in all areas and also match their kicking game. But there’s a good energy in our system,” Powell said.

Sharks – Aphelele Fassi, Werner Kok, Francois Venter, Ben Tapuai, Thaakir Abrahams, Boeta Chamberlain, Cameron Wright, Phepsi Buthelezi, Vincent Tshituka, Dylan Richardson, Hyron Andrews, Gerbrandt Grobler, Thomas du Toit (c), Kerron van Vuuren, Ntuthuko Mchunu. Bench: Dan Jooste, Dian Bleuler, Carlu Sadie, Justin Basson, James Venter, Sikhumbuzo Notshe,  Grant Williams, Marnus Potgieter.

Neil Powell was the public-facing spokesman for the Sharks for the first time on Thursday as he announced a starting line-up densely populated with Springboks for their United Rugby Championship clash with Ulster in Durban on Saturday.

Powell is the new director of rugby at Kings Park and took over team announcement duties from head coach Sean Everitt for the first time on Thursday. The former Springbok Sevens coach said that would now be the norm, and while he has the final say in selection, Everitt and the other coaches are extensively consulted.

And so the Sharks will run out on Saturday with eight Springboks, including the entire front row, two other forwards and three backs, to take on the powerful Ulster outfit. It is a mirror image of last weekend’s game against Glasgow Warriors, when there were five Springboks on the bench and they produced a spectacular finish to turn a one-point lead after 50 minutes into a 40-12 win.

“I talk a lot with Sean about selection, especially when it came to how to introduce the Springboks. They were on the bench last weekend, but now we’re bringing them into the starting line-up,” Powell said.

“It’s always great to have them and the URC is always a squad effort. We are fortunate to have the Boks for the last two weeks because they go back to the national set-up after this game.

“They’ll come back just before our game against Harlequins in the European Cup [December 10], so we had to make sure they integrated well now, because that competition will be a massive challenge.

“And it’s also given us the opportunity to rest some of the guys who have played the last four/five matches in a row. We have to make sure we manage the whole squad well,” Powell said.

While Powell said his focus is on upskilling and improving aspects of the URC team’s play, he is also concentrating on making the academy the sort of place to which rugby legends would be happy to send their son.

“My job is about building the brand and the team, and that can only happen if we have success on the field, so that’s my focus,” Powell said.

“But I’ll also look after the academy and make sure we get juniors coming through from the U20 competition to the Currie Cup and through to the URC.

“We don’t want to have to buy players from outside our system, so we need to change things up there. I’ll also be looking at the coaching structure at senior level.

“But it’s not a one-man show, it’s going to be a combined effort,” Powell said.

Sharks team: Aphelele Fassi, Werner Kok, Marnus Potgieter, Ben Tapuai, Makazole Mapimpi, Boeta Chamberlain, Jaden Hendrikse, Phepsi Buthelezi, Vincent Tshituka, Siya Kolisi, Hyron Andrews, Eben Etzebeth, Thomas du Toit, Bongi Mbonambi, Ox Nche. Bench – Kerron van Vuuren, Ntuthuko Mchunu, Carlu Sadie, Reniel Hugo, James Venter, Sikhumbuzo Notshe, Cameron Wright, Anthony Volmink.

Coach Jake White has made an impassioned plea for the Springboks and the public to be patient with Johan Goosen as the Bulls flyhalf star makes a tentative return from a serious knee injury.

Goosen has only played two-and-a-half games of rugby since returning from 11 months out due to knee surgery, and he has understandably not exuded the same confidence as he usually has. Goosen will not be playing for the Bulls against Benetton in Treviso on Friday night because he now has a mild concussion.

The 30-year-old has however been called into the Springbok training camp for the end-of-year tour of Europe, and, with the dearth of flyhalves Jacques Nienaber is currently experiencing, White is hoping that the national coaches don’t push him too hard too soon and that the public don’t expect too much too soon from Goosen.

“I feel sorry for Johan,” White said on Thursday, “because of all the expectation that he will just arrive back in the team, wave his wand and be the best player in the URC competition and the alpha and omega of world rugby for the Springboks.

“He was on fire last year, but then he was out for 11 months and I have never coached any player who has been out that long and comes back and just pulls all the strings like before.

“Especially playing at flyhalf, where you have to make all the decisions, you’re basically the general. He does have a burning desire to get back to the Springbok team, but he is a long way off still from where he wants to be.

“But you don’t always get your opportunity at the time you decide, and he is tough enough and driven enough to take this one. I would have liked him to have had more games before his call-up,” White said.

If Goosen encounters no further injury headwinds between now and next year’s World Cup, White expressed the confidence that he would be able to win the prized tournament for South Africa at flyhalf.

“He’s coming into a very good, settled team, and I have no doubt he can win the World Cup for them. But at the moment he is probably five or six games short of his best, and he needs time, games and backing.

“I signed him for the Bulls until 2026 because I have a long-term plan with him, which is why I handle him like I do, I have more time. I’ve been very conservative because it will be very difficult for him to come back from another knee injury.

“I hope the public is as patient and understanding with him. It takes a while to fire at that level, it won’t just happen overnight,” the veteran coach said.

White confirmed that he had had no contact from Nienaber nor national director of rugby Rassie Erasmus over Goosen’s progress. That might just be because they are still sore over White’s criticism of Springbok selection earlier in the year.