Ken Borland

Bulls coach Jake White on Thursday welcomed Springbok legends Duane Vermeulen and Morne Steyn back into his starting line-up and then couldn’t help but list the terrible loss of players afflicting the Stormers ahead of their Rainbow Cup clash in Cape Town on Saturday.

White said he expects the Stormers to be without Ruhan Nel, Seabelo Senatla, Willie Engelbrecht, Kade Wolhuter, JD Schickerling, Nama Xaba and Salmaan Moeraat on Saturday. That just adds to the unavailability of Siya Kolisi, Juarno Augustus, Tim Swiel, Chris van Zyl, Jaco Coetzee and Angelo Davids from the Western Province team that played in the Currie Cup semi-finals in January.

“It’s a massive boost to have Duane back, he’s an unbelievable leader who will bring calm. Obviously things are going well with his knee and hopefully he can make an impact although I don’t expect him to be at his best physically. He’s trying to make his way back for the Lions tour, but I’m sure he will show leadership and get the team to gel. I know what he means to the team.

“Morne has been brought into the alignment camps with the Springboks, so obviously he’s an important cog too. If it had been a one-off game we could probably have pushed Trevor Nyakane to play as well, but the bigger picture of the Springboks comes to the fore there, he’s helluva important for them. Plus Mornay Smith was really good at tighthead last weekend.

“But the Stormers will have a completely different pack of forwards to what we’re used to and a very different backline. We don’t know their players as well as we used to. But we saw against the Lions, who did not have a lot of their big names, that we will still be up against a real challenge and we’re mindful of that. It is a North/South derby after all,” White said.

The Bulls were also able to advise their supporters of the signing of former Lions centre Harold Vorster on Thursday.

“At the age of 27 he has been around the block a bit. We have some real young talent here, but we probably have too many youngsters. We need that age-group that’s the middle tier, guys like Harold, Jacques du Plessis, Johan Goosen and Marcell Coetzee. Harold comes from Panasonic Wild Knights, who are an incredible club, always in the playoffs in Japan.

“So he’ll have experience of knockout rugby and having been coached by Robbie Deans, I’m full of confidence that he would have developed as a player. I know how good he was at the Lions and I’m sure he would have added more strings to his bow since then,” White said.

Bulls team: David Kriel, Madosh Tambwe, Marco Jansen van Vuren, Cornal Hendricks, Stravino Jacobs, Morné Steyn, Embrose Papier, Duane Vermeulen (Captain), Elrigh Louw, Marco van Staden, Ruan Nortje, Walt Steenkamp, Mornay Smith, Johan Grobbelaar, Gerhard Steenekamp. Bench – Schalk Erasmus, Lizo Gqoboka, Jacques van Rooyen, Janko Swanepoel, Nizaam Carr, Zak Burger, Chris Smith, James Verity-Amm.

In-form spin-bowling all-rounder George Linde could be welcomed into the Proteas T20 starting XI for the first time on Friday night as South Africa look to play a sixth bowler against a typically high-scoring England team in the first match of the series at Newlands.

South Africa’s last T20 outing was also in Cape Town back in February when they were thumped by 97 runs by Australia to lose the series 2-1. Australia managed to rack up a sizeable 193 for five batting first, and then skittled the Proteas for just 96, with spinners Ashton Agar and Adam Zampa sharing five of the wickets.

One of South Africa’s chief problems that day was that they only had five bowlers – spinner Tabraiz Shamsi was the pick of the attack, but three of the four seamers went for more than 10-runs-per-over. Linde, whose left-arm orthodox complements Shamsi’s wrist-spin, has been in great form this season with the bat, so he could comfortably slot in at number six in the order. On what is expected to be another slow Newlands pitch, a second spinner is probably going to be more useful than another paceman.

With Dwaine Pretorius ruled out of the matches against England due to a hamstring strain, Andile Phehlukwayo is likely to return to the side as the lead all-rounder.

Given the importance of making a good start to the season against the powerful English side and the eight months of inactivity for the Proteas team, coach Mark Boucher is likely to defy those calling for a new-look team and IPL stars like Kagiso Rabada, Quinton de Kock, Anrich Nortje and Faf du Plessis will surely feature because they have form and match-fitness on their side.

Lungi Ngidi was outstanding in the T20s South Africa played at the end of last summer and should play on that basis, while Temba Bavuma was also excellent as De Kock’s opening partner and should get the nod, having missed the previous Newlands game because of injury. He would replace Pite van Biljon, while David Miller and Heinrich Klaasen are probably fighting it out for one place in the middle-order.

Probable Proteas XI – Quinton de Kock, Temba Bavuma, Faf du Plessis, Rassie van der Dussen, David Miller/Heinrich Klaasen, George Linde, Andile Phehlukwayo, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Lungi Ngidi, Tabraiz Shamsi.