Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus wrote Bulls coach Jake White’s motivational speech for Saturday’s Vodacom United Rugby Championship semifinal between the Bulls and the Sharks in Pretoria.
Erasmus on Thursday surprised with the naming of a 54-strong Springbok squad for the first month of international rugby, which starts with a match against the famed Barbarians FC in Cape Town on June 28 and leads into July’s two-Test series against Italy and one-off Test against Georgia.
The surprise was that it was an unexpectedly early announcement from Erasmus on the eve of the biggest South African derby of the season, given that it doubles as the URC semifinal.
The Bulls, having played in the first ever final in Cape Town against the Stormers, and having hosted last season’s losing final against Glasgow’s Warriors, have limited representation in Erasmus’s national squad, while the Sharks, playing in their first semifinal in the league’s four-year history, supply 14 player to Erasmus.
Of those 14, the majority will play at Loftus on Saturday, early evening, and if winning a home semifinal wasn’t motivation enough, White now can add the fact that his Bulls are playing a virtual Springbok Test team, which will include five of the 2023 World Cup-winning pack.
Veteran fullback Willie le Roux and outstanding young winger Canan Moodie are the only Bulls players selected among the Bok backs, while the Bulls front row and loose-forwards Ruan Nortje and Cameron Hanekom make up the Bulls Bok contingent.
For the Sharks, led by the most capped player in Springboks history, Eben Etzebeth, and inspired by the back-to-back World Cup-winning captain Siya Kolisi, it is a shot at redemption for last season’s 14th place finish in the URC.
This season the Sharks ended third in the league, with the Bulls second, but in their last seven wins, the Sharks have won by seven or less points. In a play-off all a team needs is one point more and those 2023 World Cup-winning Boks will be well versed in the joys of one-point play-off wins, having beaten France 29-28 in a quarterfinal, England 16-15 in a semifinal and New Zealand 12-11 in the final.
It’s been a great week for South African rugby’s strength. The national governing body’s finances are the best in all of world rugby’s Test nations and 13 South African players made the best XVs of the URC (seven), Japan League One (three) and England’s Premiership (three).
White, the 2007 World Cup-winning Springbok coach, will turn to those players not selected for the Boks — and there are plenty in his match 23. He will especially encourage halfbacks Embrose Papier and Keagan Johannes to go out and make a statement against the Springboks brother halfback pairing of Jaden and Jordan Hendrikse.
White will emphasise to Dawid Kriel that if he wants to be a Springbok, he will need to own the Sharks and Boks midfield pairing of André Esterhuizen and Lukhanyo Am.
White will also have a loud word in the ear of left winger Sebastian de Klerk to make another statement against the Bok-in-waiting Ethan Hooker and veteran Bok winger Makazole Mapimpi.
White will psyche up Marcell Coetzee, a Bok at 21 years-old when he played for the Sharks, but not a player Erasmus has rated since he took charge of the Boks in 2018.
Erasmus has consistently said he has stronger options among his loose-forwards, just as he has said when omitting the in-form Stormers No 8 Evan Roos.
Erasmus is the World Cup-winning coach and last season his Boks won 11 from 13 Test matches. The rugby public tends to be in uproar when one ventures any opinion that suggests Rassie could ever get anything wrong, but his coaching pedigree and success doesn’t mean every decision is right.
It is his right to pick who he wants and he lives and dies by that sword. He risks and has risked and left the table the winner. It does not mean each play or player selection is the right one. He omitted Handré Pollard from his World Cup squad in 2023. Those play-offs may have looked a lot different had Pollard not made it to France for the last month of the tournament as an injury replacement for hooker Malcolm Marx.
Perspective and context.
Roos’s Stormers are out of the URC, beaten in the quarterfinals by Glasgow. He is not top of mind this weekend, with all the focus in Pretoria, and if the Bulls win then I am sure White will appreciate what a favour he got from Erasmus, even though the two will never enjoy a Sunday social together.
This weekend’s semifinal will be an advertisement for the Boks. It should be a sell-out in Pretoria and one hell of a game, especially that first scrum when Ox Nche and Wilco Louw shake hands with their necks.
It’s been a great week for South African rugby’s strength. The national governing body’s finances are the best in all of world rugby’s Test nations and 13 South African players made the best XVs of the URC (seven), Japan League One (three) and England’s Premiership (three).
A few may also feature in France’s Top 14 League Team of the Season.
SA Rugby has never been healthier, from the president Mark Alexander to the CEO Rian Oberholzer, to the coach Rassie Erasmus, to the captain Siya Kolisi and to 20-plus players still good enough to challenge for a place in the confirmed Boks squad of 54.
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