Cape Town – The Bulls will be hoping to feed off the “high” that star fullback Kurt-Lee Arendse is currently experiencing in Saturday night’s United Rugby Championship encounter against Cardiff, but will Johan Goosen be able to feed off that and find his mojo?
Bulls coach Jake White was thrilled that he could include Springbok hot-stepper Arendse during his team announcement on Friday, while he also called on other Boks such as Canan Moodie and Marco van Staden, who featured in the win over England at Twickenham last weekend as well.
Goosen was in London with the Bok squad too, but didn’t get game-time following a difficult time with the South Africa A side.
It has been a tough reintroduction to top-level rugby for Goosen since returning to the pitch from an 11-month knee injury layoff, where he has even had to play at fullback for the Bulls.
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But the Pretoria side will begin a relentless run of games over the next eight weeks or so, starting with Cardiff at Loftus Versfeld tonight (8pm kickoff), and continuing next week in the Champions Cup opener against Lyon in Pretoria.
So, it is an ideal time for Goosen to put his hand up again as a major playmaker for the Bulls, with White having backed him to produce the goods since his arrival in the capital city.
“We’ll see in the next six weeks. We must see how much rugby he plays. I’d like to play him as much as possible. I think he is like anybody – the more he plays, the better he is going to become. It hasn’t been ideal… To be fair to him, it hasn’t been ideal, whatever the circumstances,” the Bulls director of rugby said on Friday.
“He was out for a long time, had to miss one or two games, played in different positions… Probably got called in later into both teams (Springboks and SA A) – he was in and then out, and then he was injured. It hasn’t been the ideal environment and time both provincially and nationally.
“But he’s got a long list of games now coming up, and I’ve got to find a way to manage him, with other combinations as well, and get him to play well. The more he gets his rhythm on the field, and the more that he plays… It doesn’t mean he must play 80 minutes in every game, but it’s to get him into those situations.
“It’s not just the game-time, but also training time and having the repeat efforts (at flyhalf). Even if he is not involved in every game, the fact that he is on the field running at 10 will make it much better for his development in the next couple of weeks.”
Apart from Arendse and the other Boks, the Bulls received a further significant boost on Friday as first-choice hooker Johan Grobbelaar was passed fit to play again following his ankle injury.
Cardiff proved in their 35-0 annihilation of the Sharks in Durban last Sunday that they have a highly competitive pack, and they possess heavy hitters such as lock Lopeti Timani, captain Josh Turnbull and flank Thomas Young as their main ball-carriers.
While Grobbelaar does his basics such as lineout-throwing and scrummaging well, he is also a threat at the breakdowns and has a high work-rate with ball-in-hand too.
“A guy like Kurt-Lee Arendse is coming off an absolute high after scoring a great try at Twickenham. When a player is really enjoying his rugby and playing like he has in the last couple of weeks, it’s nice to have him back,” White said.
“It’s wonderful for us, and it’s a good team playing a Cardiff side that have beaten the Stormers and Sharks this season.
“I probably could’ve played Grobbies last week, and it just shows how resilient he is as most guys would be out for eight weeks. He was running after five or six weeks, trying to put his hand up for selection. But I didn’t want to risk it last week for the sake of one week.
“Having his work-rate and rugby IQ on the field will improve us as a team.
“Canan was out for a while, but he experienced a full house at Twickenham and a win there, and he will have a spring in his step.”
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Teams
Bulls: 15 Kurt-Lee Arendse 14 David Kriel 13 Cornal Hendricks 12 Harold Vorster 11 Canan Moodie 10 Johan Goosen 9 Zak Burger 8 Elrigh Louw 7 Cyle Brink 6 Marco van Staden 5 Ruan Nortje (captain) 4 Ruan Vermaak 3 Mornay Smith 2 Johan Grobbelaar 1 Gerhard Steenekamp.
Replacements: 16 Jan-Hendrik Wessels 17 Simphiwe Matanzima 18 Francois Klopper 19 Janko Swanepoel 20 Nizaam Carr 21 Embrose Papier 22 Chris Smith 23 Lionel Mapoe.
Cardiff: 15 Cameron Winnett 14 Jason Harries 13 Mason Grady 12 Ben Thomas 11 Aled Summerhill 10 Jarrod Evans 9 Lloyd Williams 8 James Botham 7 Thomas Young 6 Josh Turnbull (captain) 5 Seb Davies 4 Lopeti Timani 3 Dmitri Arhip 2 Kristian Dacey 1 Rhys Carré.
Replacements: 16 Kirby Myhill 17 Corey Domachowski 18 Will Davies-King 19 Teddy Williams 20 Shane Lewis-Hughes 21 James Ratti 22 Ellis Bevan 23 Harri Millard.
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