Cape Town - Cyle Brink was just hitting his straps for the Bulls last season, where he combined superbly with captain Marcell Coetzee and Elrigh Louw, before the injury bogey struck once more.
He sustained a hamstring injury against the Ospreys in late May that kept him sidelined for months, which saw him miss out on the epic United Rugby Championship semi-final victory over Leinster in Dublin, as well as the quarter-final win against the Sharks and the final defeat to the Stormers.
Now the 29-year-old blindside flank is excited to take on the Irish giants for the first time for the Bulls in tomorrow’s showdown at Loftus Versfeld (4pm kickoff), where he is keen to help the Pretoria side avoid a similar fate to the Lions.
The Johannesburg outfit led 36-21 in the second half at Ellis Park last weekend, but went down 39-36 as the second-string Leinster side rallied in the closing stages and won with a final-minute penalty.
Despite having their first-choice players – and coaches Leo Cullen, Stuart Lancaster and others – back in Dublin preparing for next week’s Champions Cup semi-final against Toulouse, Leinster will still give it a real go to maintain their 23-match unbeaten run.
“The Lions looked like they had that game in the bag, and we were sitting and watching and supporting. The game can turn, and compounding penalties can really hurt you. That also turned in the second half, so we need to make sure we keep our penalty count down and stay in control of the game – because they won’t go away for the 80 minutes,” Brink said yesterday.
“I thought the Lions did really well in the first half, but the way Leinster got stuck into it and came back in the second half just showed that they are a team that doesn’t go away. I think that we must expect an 80-minute performance from them, so we need to be prepared for that.
“They are similar to the Crusaders in the way that they stick to their systems, and they are very good at their basics. They also manipulate other teams very well by going for the space that they try to get.
“But I definitely think that if we front up physically and take it to them, we can definitely put them under a lot of pressure.
“After the tough run of games we’ve had, we don’t take anything for granted and go out to win – it doesn’t matter who is in front of us. If we stick to that mindset, we won’t get into that false sense of security.”
Brink is finding his rhythm once more in a formidable Bulls loose trio alongside Louw and Marco van Staden, with his powerful carries at close quarters opening up spaces for the backs to do their thing.
Jake White’s team come off an 11-try 78-12 hammering of Zebre last week, and need to beat Leinster to be assured of Champions Cup qualification, and will look to utilise Brink’s considerable 1.91m, 113kg frame to good effect.
“I’m feeling good. It’s nice to go through a string of games without picking up a niggle or injury. I always think that there’s something I can work on in my game, and now getting more game-time and consistency, I can work on the little things to improve my game – and get my game fitness up,” Brink said.
“The camp’s happy. We did go through a tough time when we took those losses – there were a few of them that we just lost or we were pushing at the end to get the win.
“The boys were a bit down, but we came through every Monday and had a smile on our faces and we just kept training. We are happy that we got the results over the last two weeks, and we are not going to take it for granted – we are going to keep on working hard and keep getting the results.
“We have been working on our systems the whole season, and in some of the games, it was maybe a couple of passes that didn’t stick; or a couple of errors and the bounce of the ball.
“So, over the last two weeks, things have started to bounce our way, and we’ve just stuck to our systems and trusted the players that the coaches have put in place – and we’ve got the results.”
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