The champion Springboks won’t play on Saturday, but there will be plenty of Boks on the charge in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship. And South Africa’s leading clubs need every Bok that is available to challenge for the title.
The Bulls included 13 Springboks, past and present, in a squad that will spend the next three weeks on tour in the northern hemisphere.
Primary to these Boks is the combo of tighthead Wilco Louw and flyhalf Handré Pollard.
Louw is the most destructive scrumming tighthead in the world and comfortably the best in the league. Pollard is a double World Cup winner, the player with ice in his veins, a proven match-winner and the general at No 10 the Bulls have not always had in their search for a first URC title.
Pollard returns to the Bulls after seven years in France and England playing for Montpellier and Leicester. He played the last of his 74 matches for the Bulls in 2019 and the first in 2013.
The Bulls, in the Jake White era, played in three of the four finals, two away from home and one at Loftus. They lost all three, to the Stormers in the inaugural season in Cape Town, to the Glasgow Warriors in Pretoria two seasons ago, and in Dublin to Leinster in last season’s final.
The home defeat was a surprise because the Bulls led early and seemed in total control for 35 minutes. Last season’s defeat was not a surprise, but what did surprise was how quickly and easily Leinster dismissed the challenge of the Bulls.
The hosts led 19-nil in as many minutes and there was no way back in for a Bulls team beset with issues between White and his coaching staff and White and his senior players.
The Bulls and Stormers, both unbeaten after two rounds, have the potential to win all three matches on tour, but even two wins from three and an opening month of four from five would make them the early pacesetters for the play-offs.
White, post the defeat, did his players no favours in discussing the respective qualities of the two teams. He said he needed a team of internationals to beat an outfit like Leinster, who are dominated by international players.
White, not surprisingly, left the Bulls and Johan Ackermann is his replacement. Ackermann, who coached the Lions to three Super Rugby finals, coached Gloucester and coached in Japan, has won his first two competition matches, scoring heaps of points but conceding many.
The 53-40 win against the Ospreys and the 39-31 win against Leinster were as notable for the points conceded as those scored.
Pollard is the glue for the Bulls challenge. He played just two Tests of the six in the Rugby Championship, producing a Player of the Match performance in Cape Town when the Boks beat the Wallabies.
The veteran Boks flyhalf is expected to get more game time in the five Test matches up north in November and Bok coach Rassie Erasmus will want to see Pollard play as much as possible for the Bulls.
Louw, who has been used as a super sub, will be the anchor of a Bulls scrum that is a strength in the league.
The Stormers, on tour for three matches against the Scarlets (on Friday) and Zebre and Benetton on successive weekends in Italy, have Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Cobus Reinach and Damian Willemse available, with Reinach set for his Stormers debut after spending the past nine years at Northampton Saints in the English Premiership and at France’s Montpellier in the Top 14. He played 163 matches, 76 for the Saints and 87 for Montpellier.
The Bulls and Stormers, both unbeaten after two rounds, have the potential to win all three matches on tour, but even two wins from three and an opening month of four from five would make them the early pacesetters for the play-offs.
Both clubs would be in a strong position of points banked, knowing they play more of the remainder of their league campaign in South Africa than overseas.
To win all three, the current Boks will have to influence performances and results.
The Lions, desperately unlucky to lose in Italy against Zebre in the final moments, will have to rely on home form to mount a challenge. It won’t get any easier against Italy’s best club team in Benetton.
The Sharks, strengthened by a quartet of Rugby Championship-winning Boks, should improve against Leinster in Dublin, but won’t be good enough to beat the champions, who welcome back several first-choice players.
The Sharks are likely to return to South Africa without a win from three tour matches and, like the Lions, will have to find form and fortune once home in Durban.
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