Bulls’ speed and flair excites Jake
SHARKS: EVERITT WILL RELY ON PRE-LOCKDOWN INTENSITY
Jake White has always had an attachment to big, physical players, but the new Bulls coach was most excited about the attacking flair on offer from the whippets in his squad when he named his roster yesterday for their SuperFan Saturday match against the Sharks at Loftus Versfeld tomorrow.
The squad includes two Springbok Sevens players in Stedman Gans and Kurt-Lee Arendse, and there are other players like Gio Aplon and Jade Stighling who make up for their lack of physical size with the size of their talent.
“I’m told I usually only like big okes and that we’re only going to play like the Bulls used to,” White said ironically, “but these are little guys with lots of skill and pace and I’m really excited about them. Watch this space!”
With 13 players missing from the 23-man squad that beat the Stormers in their last Super Rugby game back in mid-March, Sharks coach Sean Everitt will be anxious that his team’s level of performance does not plummet into the depths of a virtual Kloof Gorge when they travel to Pretoria to take on the Bulls.
Everitt will be leaning heavily on established combinations like Ox Nche and Thomas du Toit in the front row, locks Ruben van Heerden and Hyron Andrews, halfbacks Sanele Nohamba and Curwin Bosch, and Jeremy Ward and Lukhanyo Am in midfield.
“Saturday’s match is all about preparation, because we’ve been out for six months we need to reinstall and revise our game-plan. We need to make sure everyone understands it and we’re taking a few youngsters up with us to see where they are too in terms of fitting into our system. I’ll be looking at our tempo, accuracy and conditioning because we don’t know where we are right now with those.
“The players we have brought in suit the way we want to play. A guy like Manie Libbok is multi-skilled, really versatile and has a dangerous x-factor.
“He offers something in the same mould as Bosch and Aphelele Fassi when we play him at fullback. Werner Kok is also a workhorse and his work-rate epitomises the energy and enthusiasm we want to play with. He’ll start on the wing and then we’ll play him a bit at centre in the second half,” the Sharks mentor added.