Ken Borland

The Ospreys showed at Ellis Park recently that they have a top scrum, but the Bulls are confident of handling them in their United Rugby Championship match in Swansea on Friday night thanks to the intel provided to them by someone who scaled the heights of Welsh rugby.

Former Springbok tighthead prop Werner Kruger is the Bulls scrum consultant and he also played 122 times for Scarlets, being a key figure in their 2016/17 side that won the Pro12, the Celtic league that was the precursor to the URC.

“It really helps having Werner Kruger in our camp, he is someone who recently played in Wales, so he knows their mindset,” Bulls prop Gerhard Steenekamp said on Tuesday.

“All that information helps and our scrum is something we have really worked on. Now that we have played longer together as a tight five, we’ve got our rhythm.

“Ospreys have a good pack, but we’ve done our prep and we can only give our best. And in terms of adapting to the referee, if we don’t do anything wrong then he can’t penalise us,” Steenekamp said.

Ospreys are looking to win the Welsh Shield in the URC and a place in the lucrative Champions Cup, and are currently level with Scarlets on 44 points, so Friday night’s clash is a massive match for them as well.

They have lost to all three of the other South African franchises, with their heaviest defeat coming against the Lions at Ellis Park. They were beaten 45-15 at the end of March, but the one aspect of the game where Ospreys did come out on top was in the scrum, against a powerful Lions set-piece.

Since then there has been a far more celebratory mood in the Swansea Stadium offices as Ospreys have enjoyed putting 50 points on the board in back-to-back matches against the Dragons and Scarlets and they held their annual awards evening during the last week as well.

The Bulls, meanwhile, are just happy that the weather along the south-west coast of Wales is good.

“The weather is not bad at all,” Steenekamp said. “It’s nearly the same temperature as Pretoria was when we left. The last time we played in Europe it was in midwinter compared to coming from our midsummer.

“We haven’t really changed our touring plans since then, but we have grown a lot as a squad – both in our game and as players,” Steenekamp said.

Western Province captain Nama Xaba is one of the most exciting young loose forwards in the country, but for now he is focused on trying to lead his team out of the Currie Cup doldrums and gobbling up every opportunity he gets for the high-flying Stormers side in the United Rugby Championship.

The 24-year-old Xaba is a turnover specialist of note, but his place in the Stormers team is blocked by the evergreen Deon Fourie, who has been in phenomenal form this year. But the respect with which the Durban-born player is held in Cape Town is shown by him being appointed captain of the Currie Cup team, which is struggling to stay in semi-final contention with just nine points from eight matches.

“It’s been a baptism of fire for me but a great honour to captain Western Province,” Xaba said. “It hasn’t gone too well on the field, but we have a young side and we will take a lot of learnings out of it.

“We know what exciting players we have in the union and we’re just waiting for everything to click, we’re trying to get our competitiveness back, we feel like we can touch it, it’s so close.

“There are a few players swinging between the URC and the Currie Cup, like myself, Ben-Jason Dixon and Juan de Jongh. In a way I’m fortunate that I know I’m not in John Dobson’s direct URC plans and I won’t be starting every week.

“But I just try and use whatever opportunity I get in the URC to the best of my ability. It’s tricky when players come down to the Currie Cup side, but obviously their experience is very helpful,” Xaba said.

The Western Province Rugby Union was in disarray a couple of years ago, but the superb success of the Stormers – fourth in the URC log – has improved the mood considerably. Xaba said the team management have been able to drive a focus on what is happening inside the squad and on the field, but not allowing all the administrative controversy and chaos to distract them.

“The management have brought a lot of change in attitude and we should give them credit. What’s happening in the newspapers is not being allowed to creep into the team space.

“The coaches have done really well because it is our job security on the line. We have focused just on what we need to do, which has freed up the players and we are training well. They’ve done well to shield us.

“Winning is also a big thing. There are a lot of external pressures if you don’t win, because people think those off-field issues are creeping in. But it takes a lot of pressure off when you have the Stormers being so successful in the URC,” Xaba said.

The Bulls, with numerous URC players in their squad, looked set to impose their old dominance of domestics rugby with a commanding first half against Griquas in their Currie Cup match at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday evening, but the visitors refused to accept a subservient role and nearly overthrew the form book in the second half.

The Bulls, having led 36-5 at halftime, eventually won 48-38 but Griquas were clearly the better team in the second half as they outscored the defending champions 33-12 in the second forty.

Tempo the chief difference for the Bulls

The Bulls’ experience of playing against European opposition in the URC served them well in the first half as Griquas just could not cope with the pace and intensity of the game. The visitors were properly dominated as the Bulls ran in six tries to roar into a commanding lead at halftime.

It was clinical from the Bulls as just about every pass stuck, the forwards gave them a wonderful platform and they played with quite some adventure.

Yellow cards lethal for Bulls & momentum for Griquas

The Bulls picked up where they left off in the early stages of the second half as a rolling maul try for hooker Jan-Hendrik Wessels took their lead to 41-5. But then two yellow cards – for prop Lizo Gqoboka, for collapsing a maul, and wing Madosh Tambwe, for a deliberate knock-on – in the space of three minutes were a massive blow for the Bulls. Playing against 13 men provided momentum and confidence for Griquas and they played tremendously well to provide a proper, competitive match for the crowd.

Tambwe’s sale price should go up

Wing Madosh Tambwe’s move to Europe has now been confirmed, but the new Loftus Versfeld star would have impressed his future employers with a dazzling first-half display. He started with a crunching tackle in defence, made excellent takes in the air and he looked lethal every time he ran with the ball. He would pop up all over the backline with an injection of raw pace, a perfectly-timed pass to wing Stravino Jacobs setting up the opening try in the third minute. His power game was also on display and he also set up the last try of the first half, by fullback Canan Moodie, by bumping off a couple of tackles and then breaking through the defensive line.

Griquas show they should not be underestimated

Scoring six tries gave Griquas a bonus point, keeping them in the top four on the log and maintaining their semi-final challenge. One of the premises of being in the semi-finals is that you are a highly competitive side and Griquas showed in the second half that they certainly belong.

Flank Hanru Sirgel led the way with two barnstorming tries as the Griquas pack began bossing affairs.

Scorers

Bulls: Tries – Stravino Jacobs (2), Cyle Brink, Reinhardt Ludwig, Canan Moodie, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Harold Vorster. Conversions – Chris Smith (5). Penalty – Smith.

Griquas: Tries – Sango Xamlashe, penalty try, Munier Hartzenberg, Hanru Sirgel (2). Christopher Hollis. Conversions – Zander du Plessis (3).

Like an aeronautics expert trying to ensure take-off happens at exactly the right time, Bulls director of rugby Jake White will be using the next two weekends of Currie Cup action to try and ensure his team peak at the business end of the United Rugby Championship.

The Bulls have already sealed a quarterfinal place in Europe, but their match against Ospreys in Swansea on May 20 could decide whether they will have crucial home ground advantage for that playoff match.

So basically White is looking for four straight wins in the URC to take the title. But his desire to win a hat-trick of Currie Cup crowns is also great, so he was quite happy on Friday to announce a Bulls team that is a half-and-half mix of URC and Currie Cup players for their match against Griquas on Saturday evening at Loftus Versfeld.

“It’s predominantly URC guys that I want to game-time to, but it’s a double-edged sword because we take the Currie Cup seriously as well,” White said.

“There will be another rotation next week for our match against the Golden Lions when we give some of these players the week off.

“But we can’t afford to give the URC guys two weeks off before such a vital game as the Ospreys one, it’s absolutely critical to try and get a home playoff. So it’s another hit-out for them.

“It’s an opportunity to try and get right the things we want to do at the back end of the URC and this team is the sort of ideal balance you’d want every week – seniors and youngsters playing together,” White said.

The Bulls have tended to concede the most points at the starts and deaths of games, and a team like Griquas can be lethal if you allow them a foothold in the game, so White said starting and finishing better is a work in progress for his team.

“We definitely want to start well. You work out along the way what works in terms of getting a good start – the warm-up order, your routine before the game or selection can all be factors.

“There’s no exact answer, but the more you get it wrong, the closer you are to getting it right. Once you find a formula that works, you lean on that. You try to find the right recipe, but sometimes it takes a while,” White said.

Bulls team: Canan Moodie, Stravino Jacobs, Cornal Hendricks, Harold Vorster, Madosh Tambwe, Chris Smith, Embrose Papier; WJ Steenkamp, Cyle Brink, Arno Botha, Reinhardt Ludwig, Walt Steenkamp, Robert Hunt, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Lizo Gqoboka. IMPACT – Schalk Erasmus, Simphiwe Matanzima, Dylan Smith, Ruan Nortje, Muller Uys, Keagan Johannes, Juan Mostert, Stedman Gans.