CAPE TOWN - While Jake White would like the Bulls to maintain their unbeaten record on his watch at Loftus Versfeld, getting his team ready for the Rainbow Cup is still the main goal in tonight’s clash against the Stormers (7pm kick-off).
The Currie Cup champions have won 10 consecutive matches on their home ground during White’s tenure, which began with the Super Fan warm-up game last year.
But more importantly, fixing a few areas of the game in the next generation of top-class Bulls is what White is aiming for ahead of the Rainbow Cup, which is still scheduled to start in mid-April.
Yesterday, he picked a team mixed with Boks such as Trevor Nyakane and captain Nizaam Carr, and youngsters like flank Werner Gouws and new signing Zak Burger as he tries to build the necessary depth for the new season, which could stretch all the way from now to next year June.
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Regular skipper Duane Vermeulen is still recovering in Cape Town from his recent knee procedure, with White saying that the big No 8 is “doing really well” while working with Bok physiotherapist René Naylor before returning to Pretoria in three weeks.
Others such as Stravino Jacobs, Ivan van Zyl, Embrose Papier and Lizo Gqoboka are not available this week, while Kurt-Lee Arendse is still with the Blitzboks. Burger gets an opportunity at scrumhalf, while Richard Kriel replaces his older brother David at fullback.
“I’m not going to tell you which areas, but we want to get those right – whether it’s systems in our defence, or communication in our back-three or competing in line-outs. Can we play 35 minutes of ball-in-play time? Can we go through a game without missing a tackle? Can we play for three minutes with the ball without losing it?” White said.
White added that there were “no hard feelings” towards Damian Willemse, who opted to sign a three-year contract extension with the Stormers instead of joining the Bulls, and who will start at fullback tonight.
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The Capetonians have also gone for a mixed side of youngsters and experienced players, but that doesn’t mean the Bulls will have an easy time of it.
“The Stormers have picked a relatively good team – I know they haven’t picked everybody (all their Springboks), but they will still be good. We have a record here that’s a very proud one, so we hope to maintain that factor,” White said.
“I’ve seen with interest how the Stormers play with that (new) front row, and Scarra Ntubeni and Neethling Fouché – they’ve played a bit differently. I read an article in the paper, I think it was (veteran Cape rugby coach Achmat Sedick) Sieed who spoke to Salmaan Moerat about using the scrum differently as opposed to just going for penalties … There is no doubt that that’s what’s happened in the last couple of weeks.”
Bulls
15 Richard Kriel 14 Madosh Tambwe 13 Stedman Gans 12 Cornal Hendricks 11 Marco Jansen van Vuren 10 Chris Smith 9 Zak Burger 8 Nizaam Carr (captain) 7 Werner Gouws 6 Marco van Staden 5 Ruan Nortje 4 Janko Swanepoel 3 Trevor Nyakane 2 Joe van Zyl 1 Gerhard Steenekamp.
Bench: 16 Johan Grobbelaar 17 JanHendrik Wessels 18 Jacques van Rooyen 19 Jan Uys 20 Tim Agaba 21 Keagan Johannes 22 Morné Steyn 23 Diego Appollis 24 Nolan Pienaar 25 Raynard Roets 26 Marnus Potgieter.