Player management and the threat of burn-out ahead of the 2011 World Cup has been big news in South Africa recently, but the Bulls don’t believe there is a problem.

South African sports science professor Tim Noakes lit the fuse that caused the furore when he claimed last month that the Springboks won’t be at their best for the 2011 World Cup – with many of the top players having been “over-played” in 2009.

According to Noakes, who played a significant part in the Boks’ 2007 World Cup triumph after he advised former coach Jake White to implement a strict player-management programme, feels it may already be too late for current Bok coach Peter de Villiers to follow a similar route.

Apart from suggesting that the core of the national team – which helped the Bulls win the Super 14 in 2009, beat the B&I Lions and won the Tri-Nations – were over-exposed to top-flight rugby last year, Noakes even predicted a series of crippling injuries will follow this year and quite possibly in the World Cup year.

However, Bulls coach Frans Ludeke moved swiftly to allay fears that his team – which provide 15 members of the year-end tour squad – will become victims over ‘over exposure’.

“We have a very good relationship with the players,” Ludeke told iafrica.com in an interview, as the defending Super 14 champions resumed their pre-season preparations in Pretoria this week.

Ludeke said they have a very solid and proven strategy of player management at the Bulls, with their Boks leading the way at training.

“When we chat to them, there is honesty and clarity about when we feel a player is struggling,” Ludeke said.

“I feel we managed them well last year, especially in the Currie Cup and Super 14, when we really needed them.

“There is certainly no problem,” he told iafrica.com, when asked about the criticism levelled against the amount of rugby played by the leading players – which include frontline Boks such as Victor Matfield, Bakkies Botha, Danie Rossouw, Pierre Spies, Gurthrö Steenkamp, Fourie du Preez, Zane Kirchner, Wynand Olivier and Morné Steyn.

We are ‘hands-on’ in this regard [player management] and that is very important – to ensure we make small adjustments, be that in terms of game time or adjust training sessions.

“We know those are the players that are in high demand with SARU [for internationals] and ourselves, in terms of Super 14 and Currie Cup.

“We have a sound strategy on the table with those players, to ensure we manage them in a very responsible manner.”

Ludeke said every person is entitled to his own opinion on the matter of player management, but at the Bulls they have had very good discussions with each player.

“We can just work with what is in front of us – the feedback we get and how players react.

“I can tell you, our Boks are running in the front [at training] and they set a very high standard.

“I don’t want to mention names, but they are all there at the forefront – there’s a great urgency and you can see the hunger.

“Normally you can see the mental fatigue and in December you could see they had been through a long season with plenty of rugby.

“That is why we managed the players the way we did [at the pre-season camp in George] and I feel we did very well.

“It was just the fact that we had them available to assist with some of the off-field planning, that was very important to us.

“They were not really required to do much in terms of physical conditioning.

“I can see that the two-week [festive season] break, along with a week [in George] and the two weeks they had [after the year-end tour] gave most of them a five-week break. I can see a big difference in the players, the attitude is great and they look fresh.”

Ludeke has been supported in this view by Bulls captain and Bok vice-captain Victor Matfield, who also suggested that with proper management there is no need to panic and that the Boks will be at their best.