VIDEO: White on Boks and vital Bristol game
NEWS: Jake White, Director of Rugby at the Bulls, revealed their Springboks are still on leave as part of their obligatory resting period.
World Cup winning Boks Willie le Roux, Canan Moodie, Kurt-Lee Arendse and Marco van Staden should be back in action after the Bordeaux fixture scheduled for January 20.
Unlike some of the other teams, White said he decided to give the Boks time off altogether over the December and January period as his side prepares for the rest of their participation in the Champions Cup.
The Bulls travel to England on Tuesday evening where they will face the Bristol Bears on Saturday afternoon.
“If I am going to do it, this is probably the best time post-Christmas, there’s an extra week holiday in the Cape with their families. There is nothing untoward, no-one is less important or one tournament is more important,” White explained to the media at training on Tuesday.
“Some coaches, and I have been reading between the lines, are doing it at different times. I could quite easily have kept Canan Moodie and say Kurt-Lee Arendse for these two games and then given them their time off.
“I’ve just decided, en masse, I would rather do it all together and bring them back. It doesn’t downplay one or the other,” White said.
“Some coaches, like the Sharks or the Stormers, would do it differently. They might do it for five weeks, but that five weeks might be in March and that is up to them.
“They might look at their calendar and say those five weeks are the five weeks that they want to do it.
“When I looked at our players, who we have, I mean Marcell [Coetzee] needs to play, leaving Marco [Van Staden] out now is not going to influence anything because I gave Marcell some time having been banned for three weeks and not playing, so it probably fits him with that.
“And I think the two wings play well together, that’s the one thing, so I’d rather have them together, Canan and Kurt-Lee, than one and not the other one.”
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The game against Bristol this weekend is vital, not only for the Bulls, but also the Bears.
The Bears put in an impressive performance as they stunned Sale last weekend, earning just their fifth win of the season.
But White is not underestimating the Bristol side as a victory for either team will see them through.
“I don’t think they are an eight on the log team, I think they started badly and they now have to catch up. And that log is so close, it changes every week.
“I don’t see Bristol as an eighth out of 10 team. I see them as a team that started poorly and they have to catch up. Maybe that was the motivation they needed to beat the Sale Sharks.
“Winning one and losing one puts us in the middle of the pool. This will determine whether we go through or not.
“Yes I know Bordeaux still has to come play us, but once this game is over, you will know where you will finish in the pool and if you are in or out of the playoffs,” the coach explained.
He also revealed that Jannes Kirsten is still on the road to recovery after a long-term injury and should be back in the next month or so.
He was elated to have a player like Henry Immelman in Pretoria, explaining that it is vital to have a versatile back like him in the mix.
Immelman has vast experience of the European conditions having played at Montpellier and Edinburgh.
“The more you have that caliber of player that understands that, the better. That’s where you can get value, they would understand what the ground is like, what the town is like, what the atmosphere and all that sort of thing.
“That is one of the things I do look at.
“He has been part of the mix and WJ Steenkamp will hopefully also be back soon.”
