Ken Borland

It is not that surprising to see young Bulls lock Walt Steenkamp playing with extreme vigour in the Rainbow Cup, given that the 25-year-old came down with Covid at the end of last year, which then affected his heart, meaning he only returned to the field three weeks ago.

Steenkamp came down with a particularly virulent but rare strain of the Covid-19 virus that attacks the heart muscle, leaving him with arrhythmia, a condition in which his heart-rate struggles to return to normal after exercise. It actually required surgery in which the misfiring electrical signals are corrected.

“After five months of not playing it’s lovely to be back and playing in a winning team again. But it was quite heavy going through that, I will take nothing for granted again when it comes to playing rugby, it was a big fright. Fortunately the doctors never said I would definitely have to give up rugby, so I always believed I would come back.

“I actually had to have the operation twice, it’s called an ablation – they insert catheters that destroy the tissue that’s causing the abnormal heart signals, turn it into scar tissue. I had just 20% heart function before the operations but it’s all perfect now. And I really value being back in the lovely culture of this team,” Steenkamp said this week.

The former Free State Cheetahs and North-West Leopards star has made a big impact since joining the Bulls last November and has made some major plays, especially a crucial lineout steal five metres from their own line against the Sharks when the Bulls had just gone 19-9 up last weekend. Steenkamp clearly has a big engine, he is mobile but also a big-hitter in the physical exchanges.

But even as a relative youngster, Steenkamp has noticed how the game of rugby is changing, which presents fresh challenges, especially in terms of adapting to the new way tackles are being refereed, which many people consider a cancer in the game.

“Rugby has changed a lot, but Jake White is a mastermind, he knows what it takes to win and we’re doing the right things at the moment. The rules now make it harder to do what locks used to do. There’s more focus on fitness now and we have to be more careful, especially when it comes to tackles,” Steenkamp said.

Loftus Versfeld is a crucible refining some of the best young talent in South African rugby at the moment and David Kriel and Madosh Tambwe are two of the standout prospects.

They spoke on Wednesday about what they have enjoyed most about their time with the Bulls.

David Kriel

The 22-year-old fullback said he has especially enjoyed not being under pressure to produce dazzling rugby in a backline full of Sevens stars. Kriel has impressed with his mature, composed performances at fullback in his first full season of senior rugby.

“You have to trust the timing of your selection and I’ve just tried to be composed. A lot of youngsters feel they have to come in and take the spotlight, say ‘look at me now’. But I’ve been able to just do what I know I can do and what the team has needed. I’ve always been maybe a bit more composed since my school days, and now having a mentor like Gio Aplon here helps a lot.

“Coach Jake also knows his stuff and being as versatile as possible is a big advantage. It’s going to be an entirely different experience in Europe and we don’t know how the rugby will compare. But we trust management and we feel ready for what is coming. Conditions will play a big role and we will just stay with what we have established this year,” Kriel said.

Madosh Tambwe

The 23-year-old wing joined the Bulls a month ago, having spent three years at the Lions and then 2020 at the Sharks. His arrival in Pretoria has seen him reunited with Joey Mongalo, his Lions mentor who is now the Bulls’ defence coach. But the Kinshasa-born Parktown product is clearly not at Loftus for a holiday.

“To work with coaches like Jake White and Chris Rossouw is really tremendous and Joey Mongalo again. I met Joey when I was U15 and he was the head coach of the Lions Invitational team, Hacjivah Dayimani played too and I managed to get a scholarship to Parktown. Joey was the one who said to me I should see how far I can go and by Lions U19 I had already decided to make rugby my career.

“I had personal reasons for coming up here from the Sharks, but rugby-wise it also made a lot of sense. It’s something to cherish, not everyone gets to work with the sort of talent that is here and I just try to put my hand up and contribute to the team. I just want to find my feet here and be a regular starter, I know what it takes. I’m just trying to be professional and a great team guy,” Tambwe said.

Bulls coach Jake White has been able to run the rule over his young assets in the last two games and he declared himself well-pleased after they secured an impressive 48-31 win over the Pumas in Nelspruit on Tuesday night.

Only eight members of the squad that won the Currie Cup final have been involved in the preparation series matches against Eastern Province and now the Pumas, as White has chosen largely youthful line-ups comprising the fringe talent at Loftus Versfeld.

“What I’ve enjoyed the most is that this team has an average age of 22. A guy like Jan-Hendrik Wessels [prop] is still U20, Reinhardt Ludwig [lock] was still in matric last year at Affies. So I’m chuffed we have some nice depth going forward and this will be a good team if we can keep them together.

“There was some over-agerness, with tighthead props and scrumhalves taking tap-and-goes and then knocking on, but that’s the thing with youthfulness and having a young side – they can make mistakes,” White said afer the match.

The Buls led 27-17 at halftime and stretched that lead to 41-17 on the hour mark, before conceding two late tries, but White said he still valued the defensive effort in the second half.

“I’m sure neither defence coach will be that happy with the first half. We gave them 17 points in the first 21 minutes, but then they did not score again until the 70^th minute, even though I’m sure [coach] Jimmy Stonehouse gave them a rev at halftime and it was always going to be difficult for us in te second half. Our defence was much stronger in the scond half,” White said.

The young Bulls team Jake White sent to Nelspruit for their Currie Cup match against the Pumas on Sunday may well have been extremely talented, but they also made a million mistakes as they were humbled 44-14 by the home side.

The Bulls conceded a plethora of penalties, many of them at the scrum, where the Pumas were hugely dominant, but others were just down to ill-discipline or not knowing the laws of the game properly. Those penalties ensured the Pumas bossed both the territory and possession stats.

But when the Bulls did have the ball, they also made several handling errors and conceded turnovers, meaning they were not able to make use of their opportunities. They also made mistakes in setting up their driving mauls, which robbed them of another attacking weapon.

When one adds a defence that was occasionally disorganised and a number of one-on-one tackles being missed, then the reasons for the heavy defeat are clear.

With coach White excluding most of the players who he will call on for their semi-final against the Lions on January 23, it was a case of U21s against seniors in Nelspruit.

But full credit to the Pumas, who put their run of defeats behind them and produced a fine display of rugby, largely cutting out the errors that dogged the Bulls. Their set-pieces were excellent, their maul effective and in open play they used the ball with dashing, while also defending well and competing effectively at the rucks.

The Pumas, retaining impressive hunger and drive at the end of a tough season, started in clinical fashion and by scoring five tries in the first 25 minutes they had effectively already shut the Bulls out of the match by racing to a 31-0 lead. The Bulls eventually made it on to the scoreboard after half-an-hour through a rolling maul try by debutant hooker Joe van Zyl.

The Bulls managed to keep the Pumas out better in the second half, apart from a second fine solo try by flyhalf Devon Williams.

The Bulls’ debutant inside centre Dawid Kellerman managed to take something out of the game with a good individual try of his own.

Scorers

Pumas – Tries: Luther Obi, Etienne Taljaard, Devon Williams (2), Willie Engelbrecht, Daniel Maartens. Conversions: Ginter Smuts (4). Penalties: Smuts (2).

Bulls – Tries: Joe van Zyl, Dawid Kellerman. Conversions: Morne Steyn, Clinton Swart.