Ken Borland

Bulls coach Jake White was not expecting elusive wing Rosko Specman to be playing for the Stormers against his team in their Rainbow Cup match at Loftus Versfeld on Friday night, but he does know those thickset brutes in the visiting pack are going to be trying to wrestle his side into submission.

Specman, on loan from the Free State Cheetahs, was rushed straight into the Stormers starting line-up on Thursday, with Sergeal Petersen being relegated to the bench. Specman was one of the players released from the Bulls by White last year and there have been suggestions of some bad blood between the two.

But when White was asked on Thursday about Specman coming back to Loftus Versfeld to play against his former team, White said he was delighted for the Springbok Sevens star. Before adding a trademark bit of psychological warfare against the Stormers.

“It’s fantastic for Rosko, although I don’t know if he’ll play. I’ll be very pleased for him if he does and he’s also been in the Springbok alignment camps. But there are probably five other wings who have been in Cape Town the whole year, so it’s difficult for them to just parachute Rosko in ahead of everyone else, especially a guy like Edwill van der Merwe, who scored the winning try in their last match.

“So I don’t expect anything different from the Stormers, they have a formula that works for them and the last time they were here, they had six forwards on the bench. That’s working for them and they use their scrum and maul to attack you a lot. It’s going to be a massive, must-win game for us. Fortunately we have three Springboks [Marcell Coetzee, Ivan van Zyl & Gio Aplon] back for a huge game against the team that has the most Springboks in their pack,” White said.

While Coetzee playing with Springbok legend Duane Vermeulen and up-and-coming star Elrigh Louw, and Marco van Staden on the bench, in a loose trio White described as probably being the best in global club rugby is going to engender much excitement, the return of utility back Gio Aplon, to cross swords with his old team, and scrumhalf Ivan van Zyl is most welcome.

With less than a month to run on Van Zyl’s contract before he joins Saracens, many coaches would have ploughed on with Zak Burger and Keegan Johannes at halfback now that Embrose Papier is injured. But not White.

“It sums up everything about our culture. If Ivan had wanted to hide or protect himself before going to Saracens, I would have been disappointed. But it says a lot for him that he wants to be part of the team, he wants to finish here on a high and complete his contract properly. That’s a sign that things are where they should be.

“The reality is I do have other scrumhalves, but I’ve gone for the best one to get the job done in this match, and Embrose is injured and I don’t think he’ll be able to play for a couple of weeks. Ivan is one of the guys showing he has wonderful character, and that’s why we have been successful,” White said.