Jenkinson injury misery for struggling Bulls
THE BULLS hellish start to this year’s Super Rugby campaign took another turn for the worst yesterday with the news that prop John Roy Jenkinson will be returning home from New Zealand after sustaining a hamstring injury in the weekend’s loss against the Blues.
Jenkinson, who has suffered a grade two hamstring tear, was making his Super Rugby debut for the Bulls in Auckland on Saturday.
He had made the trek up to the capital last year from Stellenbosch, where he had starred for Maties in the Varsity Cup in the past two seasons.
Conrad van Vuuren is already on his way to New Zealand to join the beleaguered Bulls side ahead of their encounter against the Chiefs in Hamilton.
That match will be followed by a trip to Tokyo where they will face the Sunwolves.
While Van Vuuren is not likely to get any game time this week with Jacobie Adriaanse the logical prop option on tour, he might be called into action in Asia with Springbok prop Trevor Nyakane due to have his mandatory rest.
Nyakane came in for special mention by Bulls coach Nollis Marais for his exceptional scrumming effort against the Blues and there will be pressure on Marais to continue with Nyakane’s progress after converting him from loosehead to tighthead prop this year.
The Pretoria outfit have also suffered another injury scare with former Junior Springbok captain and number eight Hanro Liebenberg suffering a pectoral muscle injury, which could rule him out of the clash against the Chiefs.
Bulls doctor Herman Rossouw could not confirm if Liebenberg would be available or not and said that it would depend on his response to treatment.
“Hanro injured a pectoral muscle and we need to see how it is responding to treatment in the next day or two before we can make a call on his continued involvement on the tour,” Rossouw explained yesterday.
Liebenberg’s possible unavailability could put Marais’ plans into a tail spin with his options at number eight being Arno Botha.
But Botha is still struggling with match fitness after returning from injury two weeks ago.
Nic de Jager could be the other consideration, though he has failed to make a telling mark in the games he has played so far this season.
The Bulls are now in a desperate position and don’t need any further setbacks after losing three of their four matches. Marais will be under more pressure to make the right selections to get his team the positive result they so desperately need to resuscitate their ailing campaign.
Aside from the possible changes brought on by injury, Marais will need to have a look at scrumhalf as well where both Piet van Zyl and Rudy Paige have not been convincing, though the latter has looked the better of the two Springbok halfbacks.