Despite two massive United Rugby Championship games looming on the horizon, Bulls coach Jake White said that it wasn’t “really difficult” to pick the team for Saturday’s Challenge Cup quarter-final against Edinburgh (1.30pm start).
White made two changes to the side on Friday from the one that started in last week’s 32-22 victory over Bayonne in France.
Captain Ruan Nortjé is back in the second row and star No 8 Cameron Hanekom in the loose trio after both stalwarts played off the bench last Saturday.
But after this weekend, the Bulls travel to Ireland to take on Munster in Limerick next Saturday, followed by a blockbuster clash against defending champions Glasgow in Scotland on Friday, April 25 – having lost to Franco Smith’s team in last season’s URC final.
White, though, decided to stick largely with the match-23 that triumphed in Bayonne, although there are two welcome new faces on the bench in Springbok hooker Johan Grobbelaar and wing Canan Moodie.
“You want to pick your strongest team every single Saturday, and that’s not possible – especially with all the injuries we’ve had,” White said on Friday.
“Canan was out, Kurt-Lee’s overseas, Willie’s out, Johan Goosen was out with a long-term injury... Cameron was out, Ruan Nortjé, Ruan Vermaak is now out, Gerhard Steenekamp is out.
“It has been a bit of a juggling act, because we can’t put everyone coming back from injury straight into the starting line-up, and some guys are playing well and holding onto their jerseys.
“It is a bit of a balancing act because we can’t make too many changes; otherwise you lose cohesion.
“And you also then don’t reward players who are playing well enough to keep their jerseys. So, it wasn’t that much of a concern in selecting the team.
“Maybe next week the Springboks start and the other guys are on the bench, but we’ll only be able to answer that once I know how we get through this fixture.”
White was excited to see Hanekom and Nortjé starting again after both worked their way back from injury layoffs.
“I think Ruan will still call the lineouts, and whether they swap around numbers-wise going forward is not going to make any difference,” the former Bok boss said.
“Canan is now back from his long layoff. Obviously he got a bit of a scare the last time he played (against the Stormers on March 1).
“His recovery after the HIA was a bit longer than initially thought, but he’s back now and obviously covers all the positions in the backline.
“It’s nice to make just two changes to the team, and for the first time in a long time, we’ve got a settled group as we didn’t get any injuries last week.
“We could keep the same backline, and two Springboks have come into the forwards.
“It is some continuity and a little bit of reward for how we played last week, and a very good bench with six Springboks, which hasn’t happened for a long time.
“It’s always nice to know you have most of your best players available.”
Meanwhile, White will come up against one of former assistant coaches at the Bulls and Sharks, Sean Everitt, who is now the head coach at Edinburgh.
But even though they know each other’s styles and mindsets, the Bulls director of rugby didn’t want to make the quarter-final about them.
“I’ve been around too long to worry about other coaches. Me and him being the coaches... It has nothing to do with what the coaches do, but how the teams play,” White said.
“I know Sean and he knows me, and that means absolutely nothing. They’re a good team. They’re laden with internationals, and they are in a home quarter-final, as they finished higher on the log than us.
“I don’t see anything untoward... I will probably see Sean tonight for dinner as well.
“It’s not about me and him, or anything out-thinking anybody, but how the teams play and whether the teams are good enough tomorrow.”
Bulls Team
15 Devon Williams 14 Sergeal Petersen 13 David Kriel 12 Harold Vorster 11 Stravino Jacobs 10 Keagan Johannes 9 Zak Burger 8 Cameron Hanekom 7 Jannes Kirsten 6 Marcell Coetzee 5 JF van Heerden 4 Ruan Nortjé (captain) 3 Wilco Louw 2 Akker van der Merwe 1 Simphiwe Matanzima.
Bench: 16 Johan Grobbelaar 17 Jan-Hendrik Wessels 18 Mornay Smith 19 Reinhardt Ludwig 20 Marco van Staden 21 Embrose Papier 22 Johan Goosen 23 Canan Moodie.
Edinburgh: 15 Wes Goosen 14 Darcy Graham 13 Matt Currie 12 James Lang 11 Ross McCann 10 Ross Thompson 9 Ben Vellacott (co-captain) 8 Magnus Bradbury 7 Hamish Watson 6 Jamie Ritchie 5 Grant Gilchrist (co-captain) 4 Sam Skinner 3 Javan Sebastian 2 Ewan Ashman 1 Boan Venter.
Bench: 16 Dave Cherry 17 Pierre Schoeman 18 D’arcy Rae 19 Rob Carmichael 20 Ben Muncaster 21 Ali Price 22 Cammy Scott 23 Mosese Tuipulotu.