Cape Town — After Kurt-Lee Arendse and Canan Moodie made the Bulls competitive against Ulster and Toulouse over the last two weeks, Jake White will be hoping that two other changes will make a significant difference in Friday’s Currie Cup clash against Griquas at Loftus Versfeld (5pm kickoff).
The two Springbok stars brought some much-needed bite to the Bulls attack in Belfast and Toulouse, but it was still not enough to stop their ongoing losing streak, which has stretched to 10 in all competitions after the 32-23 and 33-9 defeats in Europe.
White selected his best match-23 on Thursday, and two eye-catching changes saw Stedman Gans come in for Cornal Hendricks at outside centre, while Embrose Papier replaced Zak Burger at scrumhalf.
Both players haven’t enjoyed a lot of game-time this season, particularly Gans, who has had a difficult time in Pretoria since being one of the stars of the 2020 Super Rugby Unlocked competition, which saw him being mentioned by pundits as a possible Springbok.
The former Blitzbok captain will hope to make a real statement of intent against Griquas, not only for the Bulls’ immediate sake, but for his future at Loftus.
The same applies to Papier, who has largely played second-fiddle to Burger over the last few seasons since Ivan van Zyl left for Saracens.
White has also brought in the likes of Nizaam Carr, Keagan Johannes and Johan Goosen to provide a spark off the bench in the second half.
“Embrose is a Springbok, and I’ve always rotated the two of them (Burger), and given them game-time as it’s important that they stay available – it can’t be that one guy is always on the bench,” the Bulls director of rugby said.
“And I thought Keagan played really well in that Griffons game. He’s the one guy who did try, he’s the one guy that showed that he wants to play a level up.
“And it sends the right message to the players… Whatever team you’re in, even in a losing team, he still looked as though he was keen to play.
“Stedman has been out for a while, and lost a little bit of game-time. I’m thinking now, with his skill and his pace, it’s something that we need. And I’m hoping he combines well with guys like Kurt-Lee and Canan, and obviously Goosen if he comes on.
“It’s now a case of getting the best combinations together, and build some momentum into next week for the URC.”
It’s a tough ask for this group of players to come up with a match-winning performance in such a short turnaround, having also travelled back from France, but the Bulls are desperate for a victory.
“I’m sure they will (feel the effects of the travel). But I read the Stormers thing as well, and it’s no use moaning about travel and all that sort of stuff,” White said.
“Last year we played with the same group of players every week, and we had one training session, and it seemed to work for us. So, we can’t now say because we are going to have one training session, we will be under-prepared. Last year, it seemed to be the recipe for our success.
“It’s the best team we can put on the field. It’s a must-win game. It’s an opportunity for us to get some points on the board in the Currie Cup, and keep our campaign alive.
“It’s also an opportunity to get momentum into the last two rounds of the URC. So, I can’t expect that they won’t be up for it, and if they’re not, then we need to find ways where we either change those guys or get the best out of them. That’s where we are.”
Blue Bulls Team: 15 Kurt-Lee Arendse 14 Canan Moodie 13 Stedman Gans 12 Harold Vorster 11 David Kriel 10 Chris Smith 9 Embrose 8 Elrigh Louw 7 Cyle Brink 6 Marco van Staden 5 Ruan Nortjé (captain) 4 Ruan Vermaak 3 Mornay Smith 2 Johan Grobbelaar 1 Gerhard Steenekamp.
Bench: 16 Bismarck du Plessis 17 Dylan Smith 18 Francois Klopper 19 Janko Swanepoel 20 Nizaam Carr 21 Keagan Johannes 22 Johan Goosen 23 Cornal Hendricks.
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