No player at the Bulls is going to manage himself for the national set-up, says coach Jake White

04 October 2024 - 15:20
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Bulls coach Jake White explains how he is going to manage players during the season.
Bulls coach Jake White explains how he is going to manage players during the season.
Image: Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix

With South African players having to adhere to compulsory leave of a minimum of eight weeks, Bulls coach Jake White says he will manage his players for the benefit of the team and not the Springboks. 

The Bulls moved from the Currie Cup straight into the United Rugby Championship (URC) and there is still the Champions Cup and next month’s end of year tour to Europe for the Springboks and he must find openings to rest players. 

Speaking after he announced a Bulls match-day 23 that included 13 Springboks to take on Ulster at Loftus on Saturday afternoon, White said his priority is the team. 

In his Springboks-laden squad, nine of the players featured for coach Rassie Erasmus in the Rugby Championship and four in the victory over Argentina in Mbombela (Nelspruit) last weekend. 

“It’s an interesting debate and it is important that you understand this. If a guy doesn't play now and we [Bulls] have a three-week tour to Europe, that’s a month,” said White. 

Bulls coach Jake White says he is not going to manage players for the Springboks. #springboks #boks #rugby #bulls

“If they [Springboks] play Scotland, you could have a situation where two-thirds of the national team haven't played a rugby game for six weeks. I am not sure if that’s a positive or a negative for the Boks from a set-up point of view.  

“If you play now, is it going to count in your favour or against you? So it is a difficult one because in some ways I am keen to rest some guys but are they going to be match-ready by the time they run out against Scotland?” 

White said he also doesn’t know who is going to picked for the Springboks’ tour to Europe. 

“Youngsters don’t know if they are going to go and the other thing is that you rest them and they don’t get selected. What we don’t want is that, and I want this to be understood, no player at the Bulls is going to manage himself for the national set-up.  

“We want everybody to be a Springbok but I am not going to start managing players so that they can only play Test match rugby.

“Let’s use two examples that are relevant and one is Jan-Hendrik Wessels who never got leave and got selected to the national squad. He has been away for nine weeks and he’s only played one-and-half-games. 

“In effect, he still needs his leave and you can’t give him eight weeks leave because they go on tour in a couple of weeks' time. In his case, I have to find eight weeks over the next five months and that means two weeks here and one week there in between. 

“A guy like Ruan Nortje, he had four weeks but got called in late into the Springboks side. I have to find him four weeks in the next couple of months. If I find he has played too many matches I might manage him for the Bulls and it’s going to be on a case-by-case basis but it is much more difficult than most people think.  

“If the guys go away for eight weeks and you are playing in three different competitions and you have Boks players who you don't know if they are going or staying. I can rotate a guy now but if he doesn’t get picked by the Boks he can sit out for two months without playing rugby.” 

Bulls to face Ulster: 1. Gerhard Steenekamp, 2. Johan Grobbelaar, 3. Wilco Louw, 4. Cobus Wiese, 5. Ruan Nortje (c), 6. Marco van Staden, 7. Elrigh Louw, 8. Cameron Hanekom, 9. Embrose Papier, 10. Boeta Chamberlain, 11. Kurt-Lee Arendse, 12. David Kriel, 13. Canan Moodie, 14. Sebastian de Klerk, 15. Willie le Roux

Substitutes: 16. Akker van der Merwe, 17. Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 18. Francois Klopper, 19. Sintu Manjezi, 20. Celimpilo Gumede, 21. Keagan Johannes, 22. Stedman Gans, 23. Aphiwe Dyantyi


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