ROOKIES A CHANCE

WITH hardly a Springbok in sight and just a handful of first-choice players in action, you’d have every right to ask: What is the point?

Coaches Pote Human and Swys de Bruin won’t give a jot about the final result either when the Bulls and Lions clash in a Super Rugby pre-season warm-up at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria today (B field, 3pm kick-off).

In fact, whether their teams play sparkling, attractive running rugby and tackle like men possessed also won’t mean much, because the majority of men running out this afternoon are not likely to be part of either the Bulls or Lions first-choice teams when the competition proper gets underway in four weeks’ time. So, what’s the point?

Of the 50 players in action today, expect only a handful of men to be part of their respective franchises’ strongest teams this year.

What the coaches are looking for this afternoon are the back-up men they believe can stand up should injuries knock out the first-choice players through the course of the marathon competition.

And injuries will occur, and some big name players will be laid low.

For the Bulls, former Bok wing Cornal Hendricks will be keen to show he is still the real deal after recovering from health issues, while Sevens speedster Rosko Specman will also be out to impress, especially now that regular Bulls wing Travis Ismaiel has been ruled out for some time with injury.

Flyhalf Manie Libbok, so impressive in the Currie Cup, has a bright future ahead of him and could be one of the Bulls’ surprise packages this year, while up front Thembelani Bholi, Ruan Steenkamp, Eli Snyman and Ruan Nortje will want to impress Human in the team’s first hit-out of the season.

Bench sitters like Tim Agaba, Nic de Jager, Ivan van Zyl and Divan Rossouw will give the Bulls the edge over the young Lions team.

De Bruin has opted to look at several young Lions stars today, like backs Wandisile Simelane, Tyrone Green, Gianni Lombard, and forwards Vincent Tshituka, Thyno Herbst, Ruan Vermaak and props Asenathi Ntlabakanye and Nathan McBeth.

There’s not much the respective coaches will learn today about their teams’ readiness for Super Rugby – not four weeks out from the start of the competition – but they will hopefully get an idea of their strength in depth and which players they can lean on when the competition starts taking its toll on the senior men.

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Jacques van der Westhuyzen