The Bulls are still in hot pursuit of Eastern Province Kings duo of Tim Agaba and Thembelani Bholi while also trying to secure the services of utility back Francois Hougaard ahead of next year’s Super Rugby season.
It is an open secret that the Bulls are desperately after No 8 Agaba’s signature and that of Bholi after successfully luring prop Lizo Gqoboka and wing Luther Obi.
Obia’s signing from the Kings was confirmed yesterday but the Bulls have seemingly hit a snag with Agaba’s signing who is reportedly on the radar of the Lions and the Springbok Sevens teams.
Furthermore, the Bulls are still in negotiations with Hougaard, who is now the property of the South African Rugby Union after signing a contract earlier this year to play for the Blitzbokke with the aim of taking part in next year’s Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games.
Hougaard is still highly valued at Loftus Versfeld with his talent to play at scrumhalf and on the wing and the Bulls are continuing to look for some avenue to allow Hougaard to play a role in their Super Rugby campaign at a reduced price tag to the rumoured R100 000 per game.
Regardless of all the wheeling and dealing going on in the background, Bulls coach Nollis Marais was still able to name a strong Super Rugby training squad that is evenly balanced between youth and experience.
While Marais is yet to name his captain for next season, indications are that Springbok hooker Adriaan Strauss will lead the team and will from time to time rotate the captaincy with flank Lappies Labuschagne.
The squad includes 15 Springboks, with some of them battling it out for places in the final squad, namely at prop and centre.
The likes of long time serving props Dean Greyling and Werner Kruger will face stiff competition from incumbent props Trevor Nyakane and Marcel van der Merwe while the presence of Gqoboka and youngsters Pierre Schoeman, Dayan van der Westhuizen and Nqoba Mxoli will make for an interesting tussle.
Explosive Springbok Jesse Kriel has been named amongst the centres in the group and will no longer return to his position of fullback which he played in his breakout Super Rugby season this year and will have to battle it out with JJ Engelbrecht, Dries Swanepoel and his twin Daniel Kriel.
Kriel is still in Japan along with flyhalf HandrePollard, wing Bjorn Basson, Engelbrecht and lock Grant Hattingh and they will all be joining the team before the start of Super Rugby in February.
There will be some concern within the Bulls squad on the limited experience they have at lock after the departure of Victor Matfield (England, retirement), Flip van der Merwe and Jacque du Plessis (both France) leaving Marais with no choice but to let Marvin Orie and RG Snyman to battle it out for the coveted No 5 jersey, while the likes of Nicholaas Janse van Rensburg, Irne Herbst and Jason Jenkins will look to cement their names in the enforcer role.
Marais, though, will be particularly concerned about his depleted stocks at flyhalf with Pollard being head and shoulders above the likes of Tian Schoeman, Joshua Stander and the on-loan Francois Brummer.
Schoeman has a handful of Super Rugby matches under his belt and so too does Brummer from his time with the Cheetahs, but Stander is untested at Super Rugby level.
The Bulls will play their first game of the revamped and enlarged Super Rugby season against the Stormers in Cape Town on February 27 and the squad will be involved in a training camp at Victoria Falls from January 29 before facing the Cheetahs in their traditional once off warm-up game also to be played in Zimbabwe. - Pretoria News