'We cannot wait': SA teams missing their Boks
SPOTLIGHT: After three rounds of the United Rugby Championship campaign, the South African franchises will be eagerly awaiting the return of the World Cup-winning Springbok stars.
The four franchises – Stormers, Lions, Bulls and Sharks – have been struggling as all teams are currently on tour in Europe.
The Sharks are without a win after three games overseas, while the Bulls became the first South African team to win abroad this weekend. The Stormers won in Johannesburg and at home before going down to Glasgow Warriors this past weekend, and the Lions suffered a defeat to unbeaten Benetton in Italy on Sunday.
It certainly will not get easier for the South Africans as they will have to wait another two weeks for their Boks stars to return.
Franchises were informed that the World Cup players, who only finished their Trophy tour this past weekend, would be given an enforced three-week rest.
The trophy tour counts as the first week, while players will now have two weeks to rest before rejoining their franchises.
In other words, the Boks will only be up for selection from November 24, Round Six of the tournament and just two weeks before the first round of both the Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup.
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Stormers coach John Dobson revealed that he aims to bring back his Springboks in December, where they will phased into the team in Round Seven before being at full strength for their opening Champions Cup game on the weekend of December 9 and 10.
Manie Libbok, Damian Willemse, Deon Fourie and Frans Malherbe are the players currently with the Springboks.
For the Sharks the likes of Ox Nche, Bongi Mbonambi, Vincent Koch, Jaden Hendrikse, Grant Williams, Eben Etzebeth, Lukhanyo Am and Makazole Mapimpi are set to return.
It will certainly make a big difference to the side after their performance in the opening three rounds of the URC.
“When we drop the Springboks into that mix, there will be a real cultural boundary set and expectations of what performances look like. We are excited to get those guys in,” Sharks attack coach Dave Williams told reporters earlier this month.
“It’s exciting as a coach to work with the wider group and know that your internationals will come back at a later stage.
“It allows focusing on growing the base and brand of players that you will need throughout the season. Even if you have a Bok-laden squad, at some point you have to rotate and rest players.”
The Bulls will have Willie le Roux, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Canan Moodie and Marco van Staden available for them and the plan is to have them firing by the time they take on Saracens on December 10 at Loftus Versfeld, Bulls Director of Rugby Jake White said.
“Obviously we cannot wait to have that energy of the Springboks,” White said after the win over Zebre.
“You can imagine coming back from winning a World Cup, the kind of energy and enthusiasm they’ll bring to our squad.
“But what is also nice is the guys that are playing in the positions that those players can play, are also playing really well and that’s always nice as a coach when you’ve got so many more opportunities to sort of change your team around.
“Who knows, maybe we might leave the Boks out. They’ve got a compulsory three-week time off, and then when we get back, they’ll join our squad. If we’ve got momentum, I might give them another week off.”
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