Frans Ludeke

The Vodacom Bulls fully support the South African Rugby Union’s plan to rest key Springboks, but there won’t be a mass withdrawal of players at any stage.

Bulls coach Frans Ludeke said the next 5 weeks will see the Bulls rotate the players in a calculated move that is in line with the SARU plan.

In a meeting between SARU, the national body’s CEO, Jurie Roux, Bok coach Heyneke Meyer, the various franchise CEOs and coaching representatives it was agreed that franchise coaches – as far as possible – would rest key Springboks at various stages in the season.

Two principles were identified as being ideal:

1. That players should not play more than 5 consecutive weeks.
2. That certain Springbok players should have a number of weeks of rest during the tournament (2 to 4 weeks depending on each player’s personal needs and position and the franchise’s playing resources). Bye weeks are not considered as a rest week (although they do trigger a restart of the count of consecutive weeks), while injury weeks are ‘invisible’ (i.e. a player injured for 2 weeks during the 1st 7 weeks of the tournament would be regarded as having played 5 consecutive weeks at the end of week 7).

However, the Sharks have already bucked the system – with coach Gary Gold having said his outfit is in a different position to other SA outfits.

The Bulls have opted to take a different stance.

Victor Matfield and Trevor Nyakane only played 30 minutes off the bench in the 25 / 24 win over the Western Force at the weekend.

However, other Bok regulars like Francois Hougaard, Jan Serfontein, Handré Pollard, Adriaan Strauss and Marcel van der Merwe all started.

“We are committed to it (resting key Springbok), we know the players need it,” Ludeke said.

“The health of players are important and we respect that.”

He felt that as a coach you have to position yourself so that when you pull a player out, you have set up his replacement to slot in as seamlessly as possible.

“We must ensure that player has the same impact,” the Bulls mentor said, adding: “In the next 5 weeks we have to ensure that we pull them each out in turn.”

The Bulls have a tough run – with games against the Crusaders (in Pretoria), Lions (Johannesburg), Reds (Pretoria), Sharks (Durban) and Stormers (Cape Town).

However, Ludeke is confident that within that schedule there is room to manoeuvre.

“Should we make the decision to pull Victor out completely, Grant Hattingh will be ready to slot in without disturbing the rhythm of the team,”he said, adding: “That is what we are planning for all of them.

“It is all about the timing, but we are committed.”

He said you simply can’t pull all the players out at the same time.

“It is a calculated plan to introduce players from the bench to ensure they are ready to start when the time comes.

“We also work with them carefully at training and manage their time. You just can’t pull them all out at the same time and compromise the team performance.”

Meanwhile the Bulls coach said that while his charges were not up to standard, he was still proud of them for pulling off a last-minute 25 / 24 victory over the Western Force in Pretoria at the weekend.

“We played against a desperate side and that is what happens, they play for 80 minutes and we could never build a score,” Ludeke said.

Pollard landed a long-range penalty in the dying minute to snatch a late winner.

The Bulls were confronted with a very negative approach from the Force, a team willing to concede penalties in order to disrupt the flow of the game.

The visitors conceded 22 penalties – compared to the 10 by the Bulls – with the Force’s Adam Coleman and Tetera Faulkner copping Yellow Cards for their indiscretions on the home side’s maul.

Ill-discipline ultimately cost the visitors the match, as Coleman gave away the penalty that Pollard slotted to win the game.

“It was a stop-start game with a lot of penalties and perhaps from their side some negative play which worked for them,” Ludeke said.

“They conceded a lot of penalties and we could not make enough of it because we made too many mistakes ourselves.

“Our work rate wasn’t up to standard and we hope to be back to our best next week.”