Ken Borland

Twice the Bulls built a spacious lead for themselves and twice they had to repel ferocious Griquas’ comebacks before eventually pulling away in the final quarter to win 56-33 in their Currie Cup match at Loftus Versfeld on Wednesday evening.

Having weathered a torrid start when they struggled at the breakdowns, conceding several penalties and a yellow card to prop Mornay Smth, the Bulls used the power of their rolling maul and scrums, as well as some swift counter-attacking play, to score three tries for a 20-6 lead.

The first went to flyhalf Johan Goosen and was thanks to a very fortuitous bounce after scrumhalf Zak Burger charged down a kick. Hooker Schalk Erasmus then scored from a maul and wing Kurt-Lee Arendse slipped through a tackle to score in the left corner after a sweeping counter by the Bulls from deep in their own half.

The Bulls closed the half in sloppy fashion though, allowing Griquas flyhalf George Whitehead to kick a third penalty and then the home side conceded a scrum penalty inside the visitors’ 22. Outside centre Chris Hollis made a break and scrumhalf Stefan Ungerer squeezed over in the corner to bring Griquas right back into the game at 16-20 at the break.

Another Whitehead penalty early in the second half closed the gap to just one point, but then the Bulls simply powered their way into a 30-19 lead as lock Walt Steenkamp drove over for a try and Goosen kicked another penalty.

Still Griquas came back although the Bulls were once again their own worst enemies as Arendse dropped the restart and then stopped Griquas from using a blindside overlap with a deliberate knock-on. A yellow card and a penalty try were rightly awarded.

But then the Bulls brought their A-game in the final quarter as all the exciting young talent they have bought stepped into the limelight.

Chief amongst those was eighthman Elrigh Louw, who burst clear from next to a ruck 20 metres out for the try that provided some breathing space. The rolling maul provided further tries for Erasmus and his replacement young Jan-Hendrik Wessels, while Arendse redeemed himself with his second try.

Scorers

Bulls: Tries – Johan Goosen, Schalk Erasmus (2), Kurt-Lee Arendse (2), Walt Steenkamp, Elrigh Louw, Jan-Hendrik Wessels. Conversions – Johan Goosen (4), Chris Smith. Penalties – Goosen (2).

Griquas: Tries – Stefan Ungerer, penalty try, Janco Uys. Conversions – George Whitehead (2). Penalties – Whitehead (4).

Springbok scrumhalf Cobus Reinach says his move to playing in the French Top 14 has made him more alive to opportunities that present themselves on the field, which means his partnership with incisive flyhalf Handre Pollard against Georgia on Friday could be an exciting one.

Reinach left the Sharks in 2017 and played three seasons with Northampton before joining Montpellier last year. Pollard’s serious knee injury means they have not played together much as a halfback combination, but they have been training together.

“Playing overseas opens your eyes a bit, it takes you completely out of your comfort zone, which makes you grow as a player. The Top 14 is a bit different to the English Premiership, which is more structured, you’re playing to shapes and maps.

“But in the Top 14 you need to be more instinctive and therefore you are more alert, so you are able to deal with what happens in front of you. Cheslin Kolbe is such a good example of that with Toulouse. He can do anything, he’s able to create magic out of nothing,” Reinach said on Tuesday.

Since the now 31-year-old Reinach graduated from Grey College, he has been dealt an interesting deck of cards in his rugby career. After one year in Free State’s youth structures, he joined the Sharks Academy in 2009 and made his debut in the Vodacom Cup in 2011. He was in the Currie Cup squad before the end of that year, helping the Sharks win that trophy in 2013. From 2014 to 2017 he was pretty much the Sharks’ first-choice scrumhalf.

Injuries to Fourie du Preez and Ruan Pienaar saw Reinach make his Springbok debut in September 2014. He was involved in the build-up to the 2015 World Cup but then was a surprise omission from the final squad, the uncapped Rudy Paige being preferred.

From then until the 2019 World Cup, Reinach was in the international wilderness. But then he enjoyed the elation of not only winning the biggest cup of them all in Japan, but he also broke a World Cup record with a hat-trick in 11 minutes against Canada.

And now he is in line to play against the British and Irish Lions.

“It’s an unbelievable story that I can tell my kids for the rest of my life, but it’s not time now to think about that, there’s rugby to be played and I’m just trying to improve as a player. It’s great that so many of us from the World Cup squad are still together so it’s not hard to make sure we’re all on the same page. Now we just have to go out and show what we’ve learnt,” Reinach said.

Like migrant birds flying from their wintering grounds to their summer breeding spots, the Bulls find themselves in a very warm and muggy Treviso and they are hoping to bring the heat and catch Benetton by surprise in their Rainbow Cup final at the Stadio Monigo on Saturday evening.

Having swept all before them in South Africa over the last year, the Bulls have gone to Italy as the winners of the southern leg of the competition, to take on the European winners, a Benetton side that have surprised all and sundry with their resurgence in the last couple of months.

The last trophy presentation the Bulls enjoyed was when they won the Currie Cup at the height of our summer, and their winter work has involved finishing top of the franchises involved in the Rainbow Cup. But the temperature is expected to rise to above 30⁰ on Saturday in north-eastern Italy, so that will take some adapting to. Coach Jake White said though that he hoped the intensity of the Bulls’ play will force Benetton to do some adapting of their own.

“The nice thing is we played through the summer in South Africa so we’re used to weather like this. I hope we can play with the same tempo and pace that we did then and hopefully that surprises Benetton. We’ve had a year of really tough derby rugby, so hopefully that helps us as well. Having been together as a team for a lot longer now, our ball-in-play time has also improved and we’ve seen the effect of that.

“But Benetton have done really well, they’re the only unbeaten side, they beat Connacht, who beat Munster who had just beaten Leinster. Plus Benetton are playing at home while we have to adapt to travel, and 11 of their team started for Italy against Scotland not that long ago, so we are up against international players. Now that we’re in the Northern Hemisphere, it will be good to measure ourselves,” White said on Friday.

While the Bulls are breaking new ground for South African rugby, they do have some experience in the kitty of what to expect in the form of captain Marcell Coetzee and lock Jan Uys, who have both played in Italy before.

“It’s fantastic to have Marcell’s experience, he played here for Ulster, they won by three points and it was a struggle. Jan Uys also played in this competition, in Italy, for Brive and that experience is a must-have, especially with no Duane Vermeulen, Morne Steyn, Marco van Staden and Arno Botha. When I was coaching in France, we played against a couple of Italian sides and they do present a bit of a different package in terms of strategy,” White said.

“It’s actually the first time I have experienced so much heat in Europe, but there are no excuses, we have to adapt if we want to be champions,” Coetzee said. “I told the players we will need to control our emotional levels, we need to be relaxed and calm, but we are going to be in some dark places and then it’s about who wants it more. Fortunately this team has been playing finals and winning … ”

Sharks coach Sean Everitt praised his new-look outfit for an excellent performance as they beat the Lions 33-21 at Ellis Park to set themselves up for a virtual semi-final against the Bulls in next weekend’s final round of the Rainbow Cup.

Needing to win with a bonus point to keep their hopes alive, the Sharks fielded a team with 10 changes to their starting line-up and scored five tries to three to hold off a Lions side that showed impressive tenacity and intent, but struggled at the breakdowns and at lineout time.

“It was a massive challenge with all the changes and Covid disruptions, and it’s never easy coming to Ellis Park and beating a Lions team that is on the up and playing some superb rugby. But we have worked hard on the things that were not working in our game and it was a really pleasing performance by the pack and the backs did well with the platform laid for them.

“I knew that there would be no lack of energy because there were a lot of excited youngsters champing at the bit to play. Manie Libbok and Boeta Chamberlain haven’t played for a while, Werner Kok was in a different position, Makazole Mapimpi was back and unbelievable, and Anthony Volmink was outstanding at fullback. This result gives us a lot of confidence,” Everitt said after the game.

While Everitt will have the services of all his players in the Springbok squad for the decisive match against the Bulls in Durban next Saturday, if the Sharks make the Rainbow Cup final then their resources are going to be stretched extremely thin with nine players away in the national camp.

“The depth of the squad will be tested, but on the other hand it’s great for those players to get the opportunity. We’ll choose our strongest possible team for next weekend because we are in with a very good chance of making the final. We need to score four tries and win the game and we haven’t lost yet to the Bulls in the last year at Kings Park.

“We know the Bulls have improved and they always find a way to win, especially when their bench comes on. We lost our last match against them at Loftus but you need to put the whole game in perspective. We just unravelled in the last 20 minutes and they scored four soft tries,” Everitt said.