Pick of the Bulls take on Lion cubs
BULLS coach Nollis Marais is obviously taking today’s first hit-out of the season far more seriously than his Lions counterpart Johan Ackermann.
Marais has picked a large group of players, including several experienced campaigners, for the match between the teams in Harare this afternoon, while the travelling Lions are made up mainly of fringe Super Rugby men and Under-21 rookies.
Not even the Lions’ head coaches, Acker mann and assistants JP Ferreira and Swys de Bruin, are in Zimbabwe; the job of “coaching” the team has been left to Under-21 boss Herkie Kruger.
So, while Ackermann will only receive verbal – and maybe video – feedback of how some of the youngsters perform against the far stronger Bulls team, Marais will get a first-hand look at several men who have returned from injury and others who’ve joined the union in the off-season.
New acquisitions Lood de Jager, Jacobie Adriaanse, Edgar Marutlulle, Johnny Kotze and Shaun Adendorff could get some game-time and so, too, promising fullback Warrick Gelant, whose 2016 season was badly curtailed because of injury. If he enjoys a good 2017 there’s no reason why he won’t be in the running to get into the Springbok team in June.
Also back from injury is centre Dries Swanepoel – and how he’ll be hoping to go through a season without a hiccup – and then of course also Handré Pollard (shoulder and knee problems), who missed the whole of the 2016 season. He is, however, not likely to play against the Lions even though he and several teammates have travelled north, too.
Jesse Kriel, Adriaan Strauss, JohnRoy Jenkins, Arno Botha, Jannes Kirsten and Jan Serfontein are all still on the injured list.
Marais is expected to play a more first-choice team when the Bulls travel to Brisbane in a week’s time to take on the Chiefs at Ballymore on February 8.
The Lions’ first proper pre-Super Rugby warm-up game will be next Saturday at Ellis Park when they host a Barbarians team, made up of club players and a handful of men from the Griffons and Leopards.