Springboks are back as Bulls feel the play-off pressure

A FULL-STRENGTH Bulls – barring a few injuries – are treating today's United Rugby Championship clash against defending champions Munster as a “final” in the hope of securing home play-offs.

Director of rugby Jake White was yesterday able to include most of his top players who sat out of last week's Champions Cup quarter-final defeat to Northampton in England for this afternoon's showdown at Loftus Versfeld (5.05pm kick-off).

But he's had to reshuffle his loose trio as Boks Marco van Staden and Marcell Coetzee have been ruled out with knee injuries, which sees youngster Cameron Hanekom shifting to an unusual openside flank position, with Elrigh Louw taking the captaincy at No 8. Another co-captain in Ruan Nortjé is not over his hamstring problem either, so 19-year-old JF van Heerden continues at lock in partnership with Ruan Vermaak – and they will face a serious test of their abilities against the world-class Munster second row of RG Snyman and Tadhg Beirne.

But the vast majority of the team that trounced Lyon a few weeks ago will return to action, with Willie le Roux, Kurt-Lee Arendse and Canan Moodie the Bok stars in the backline, and the excellent front row of Gerhard Steenekamp, Johan Grobbelaar and Wilco Louw in tandem upfront.

Hanekom's selection at No 6 is a surprising one as he has been outstanding at No 8, but White believes he can adapt to openside flank – which is also important as Coetzee has had surgery and is unlikely to play again this season. “I actually don't know what's his best position yet, to be fair. If I look at a guy like Josh van der Flier, he reminds me a lot of Josh – and Josh is an out-and-out openside flanker with pace,” the Bulls boss said yesterday.

“There are things that Cameron does that are Josh van der Flier-like. And when I've got (Mpilo) Gumede and Elrigh playing well, Jannes Kirsten coming back, Marco coming back, I've then got to find which is the best combination.”

The Bulls will be keen to prove that the decision to rest their top players against Northampton was the right one, as they will try to secure a possible home semi-final and final by winning their five remaining games.

They are third on 45 points, behind Glasgow (49) and Leinster (54), and will want to beat fourth-placed Munster (43) to keep the Irish province at bay too. White said. “It's like a final for us as well, because they (Munster) – like the Stormers – were the benchmark for the competition. So, all we can do is just to make sure we win as many games as we can between now and the end of the play-offs.”