Cape Town – Is Jake White cooking up something special in the loose-forward department for next weekend’s United Rugby Championship quarter-final between his Bulls and the Stormers?
It has been a forgettable five defeats in a row for the Pretoria side over their great Cape rivals in the URC, and White will hope that his team’s luck changes at the Cape Town Stadium next week Saturday (3.30pm kickoff).
And it seems that the former Springbok coach will bring something different in the Bulls’ armoury to counter the Stormers’ all-encompassing attacking game once and for all.
White may be testing out a new element in the loose trio for the URC playoffs in the shape of strapping young No 8 WJ Steenkamp, who will start for the Blue Bulls Currie Cup side in their clash against Western Province at the Cape Town Stadium tonight (6.30pm kickoff).
The 22-year-old Grey College product caught the eye with a number of powerful runs with ball-in-hand in last week’s 30-19 Currie Cup win over the Lions at Loftus Versfeld, having also featured as a replacement in the URC Bulls’ 62-7 thrashing of a weakened Leinster earlier in the day.
While Elrigh Louw is the established starting No 8, Steenkamp could provide a new dynamic against the speedy Stormers loose trio of Deon Fourie, Hacjivah Dayimani and Evan Roos – and he will get a chance to prove his worth once more against a strong WP loosie combo of Willie Engelbrecht, Marcel Theunissen and Keke Morabe on Saturday.
Asked if Steenkamp is similar to Louw, White agreed, adding: “And quick, really quick. You saw his speed, and it’s one of those games where the Stormers have got quite a lot of pace in their team, and it would be nice to see how he adapts to that, and what an influence he has – not only this week, but generally in the pack of forwards.
“This is the first that he will sort of play in this combination, and I would like to see what he looks like with guys like Marco (van Staden), Gerhard Steenekamp and Cyle Brink coming off the bench.”
And there is another extra weapon the Bulls are likely to introduce against the Stormers: regular captain Marcell Coetzee.
“Marcell will definitely be back on Monday, and we will assess him then. I’ve got no doubt that he is fit, because when you play in Japan, you run a lot,” White said.
“He is important to us. When you read the articles saying how important Deon Fourie is to the Stormers – and you’ve seen that in their results lately without him – it would be stupid of me not to consider using Marcell next weekend in any form: whether he is a starter, on the bench or comes in as captain.
“All that depends on how we go this weekend, and how we look going into next week.”
White didn’t stop there when it came to the loose forwards, springing a surprise by retaining robust 20-year-old flank Reinhardt Ludwig as the captain against WP, despite the presence of senior players such as Marco van Staden, Johan Goosen and Cornal Hendricks.
“That’s exactly why he’s captain: there are a lot of senior players in the team. He learnt a lot captaining a young team last week, and now I want to see how it goes with a lot of seniors. He has been groomed for a long time as a leader, and part of our growth and development is to produce a lot of leaders,” White said.
“We have won the last five games now across the Currie Cup and URC, and a lot of people are talking about Zebre and Leinster weren’t the strongest teams that we played against.
“But it’s like cricket – if you play against someone and make a hundred, you’ve still got to make sure you bat properly to make a hundred. So, I was happy that we played well, the structure we kept and didn’t lose our shape.
“Some of the younger players played really well, and some of the older guys coming back from injury…
“It’s a bit like last year, when we finished off at the back-end of the competition and we played back-to-back on Wednesdays and Saturdays, we played our best rugby.
“That’s why I decided to keep most of the guys involved this weekend again.”
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