The Bulls could find themselves without the services of Springboks Handré Pollard and Trevor Nyakane and Junior Springbok Jesse Kriel for their Super Rugby Highveld derby against the Lions on Saturday.
The trio failed to train with the team yesterday suffering from various ailments after the team’s win over the Crusaders last Saturday with Bulls coach Frans Ludeke saying that they remain hopeful they will be ready for selection later this week.
As optimistic as Ludeke may be, he will be the first person to acknowledge that the wise thing to do will be to rest all three players and not risk further injury, but he is also perched on a double edged sword after it was confirmed that Victor Matfield and Jan Serfontein would be rested this week.
Always willing to take the conservative approach in his team selections, Ludeke will be wary of making wholesale changes to his team especially in a fixture that is already fuelled by emotion and against a Lions team that has done exceptionally well in winning three of their four games on tour.
The imminent loss of Pollard, Nyakane and Kriel would be a major blow as all three have been instrumental in the Bulls’ change of fortunes this season after an indifferent start to their campaign.
The 20-year-old Pollard has been the stand-out flyhalf in South African rugby so far this season and besides his ace kicking, it has been him who has given the Bulls some direction in the way they have played in recent weeks.
If Pollard is unfit to play then Ludeke will need to make a difficult decision in choosing his pivot between an inexperienced Tian Schoeman and Jacques-Louis Potgieter who has just returned from injury.
Potgieter has long proven his worth at Super Rugby level and had been the Bulls No1 pivot after the departure of Morné Steyn to France but has subsequently been overtaken by the phenomena that is Pollard.
Schoeman, on the other hand, is an unknown entity and has featured little for the Bulls but it was his decisive penalty kick against the Sharks to win their (the Bulls’) first game this season that endured him to the hearts of the Loftus faithful and given confidence to the management about his abilities.
The Bulls won’t struggle in finding a replacement for Nyakane as another Springbok Marcel van der Merwe is waiting on the sidelines to stamp his authority in the team while Ludeke faces another selection poser at fullback – either to play Jurgen Visser or hand SA Sevens star Warrick Galant a debut in place of Kriel.
Ludeke further confirmed that Matfield and the injured Serfontein would not be training with the team this week with speculation rife at Loftus that Matfield could be injured instead of being rested ahead of the clash against the Lions.
“Jacques-Louis and Tian will be the flyhalves and Jacques-Louis trained this morning and we are checking the load before making a final call on that but he is looking good and his niggling injury is sorted,” said Ludeke yesterday.
“It is just about him being on the field and playing.”
If things don’t go according to plan for the Bulls then Ludeke will be hoping that his replacements produce the same match-winning performances that Burger Odendaal and Hanro Liebenberg did against the Crusaders after being called in as late replacements for the Serfontein and Arno Botha.
Ludeke’s reluctance to tinker much with his team stems from his desire to ensure that the Bulls capitalise on the momentum they have picked up from their four consecutive wins in the competition – over the Sharks, the Cheetahs, the Western Force and the Crusaders.
“That is the only thing that guys can hope for is guys coming in and doing the job. We have a great squad and when we press their number it is good to know that they can perform and credit to them, both guys are youngsters who have come through our system and they took their opportunities.
“The next vital thing is for us to be consistent.
“We are playing against a side that had a brilliant tour so we would like to have the same consistency in our performance,” added Ludeke. - The Star