Adriaan Strauss
Jan Serfontein
Handré Pollard
Incumbent Springboks Adriaan Strauss, Jan Serfontein and Handré Pollard is fit again and will be considered for Saturday’s Vodacom Super Rugby match against the Cell C Sharks in Durban.
According to Vodacom Bulls team doctor Org Strauss, all 3 are ready to travel to the East Coast, along with Lappies Labuschagne, who recovered from the shoulder injury which kept him out of action for the matches against the Crusaders, Emirates Lions and Reds.
Adriaan Strauss was rested against the Reds according to the SARU agreement, while Jan Serfontein last played against the Western Force and Pollard against the Crusaders.
A number of players, Jacques-Louis Potgieter (hamstring), Marcel van der Merwe (ankle), Burger Odendaal (contusion), Bjorn Basson (ankle) and Morné Mellett (back spasm) did not train on Monday, but will be back on Tuesday, Strauss confirmed. Akona Ndungane has also recovered from a broken hand.
Victor Matfield (knee, 2 to 3 weeks), Travis Ismaiel (ribs, 20 April) and William Small-Smith (foot, 20 April) will return before month’s end.
Pierre Schoeman, Bandise Maku, Carlo Engelbrecht, Werner Kruger, Duncan Matthews, Ruan Steenkamp and Ryan Nell are all still on the long-term injury list.
Now if the Bulls box clever, they would play Burger Odendaal at No 12 and Jan Serfontein at No 13 for the Sharks clash.
Play Flip van der Merwe at No 4 and Grant Hattingh at No 5, with Jacques du Plessis on the bench.
I would also play Lappies Labuschagne at No 7, with Arno Botha on the bench.
@ grootblousmile:
Agreed. Have been impressed with what I have seen from Odendaal. Jan is likely to play 13 at the WC in any event so may as well get in some practice…..
2 @ Stormersboy:
Exactly my way of thinking too.
Farkit, Pretoria is doing you wonders… hehehe
grootblousmile wrote:
I have my Bok cap on, not my Bulls cap on…
4 @ Stormersboy:
Ah, so you have a Bulls cap… hahaha
I see Voldy ripped Barney’s management to pieces. He’s got a point but his man love for the Snake is getting a bit too much
http://www.sarugbymag.co.za/blog/details/shambolic-sharks-are-missing-jake
Shambolic Sharks are missing Jake
On-field discipline and defence at the Sharks went with the departure of Jake White, writes MARK KEOHANE in Business Day.
The Sharks were quick to dismiss Springbok World Cup-winning coach White in 2014 after an eight-month stint that realised the winning of the South African conference, a first ever win against the Crusaders in Christchurch, a first ever back-to-back triumph in New Zealand and three away wins in four Australasian tour starts.
White’s Sharks won a home play-off qualifier before losing the semi-final away to the Crusaders.
The end for White was abrupt. The senior players wanted him out because they found his methods too disciplinarian, too prescriptive and too draining. They didn’t like the protocols White had instilled of demanding the players report to Kings Park at 8:30 in the morning for a working day.
It was not the way things were done in Durban. It apparently was not the Sharks way. The players were unhappy.
White was not prepared to compromise. He was also not prepared to continue to work with a coaching staff (in Brad MacLeod-Henderson and Paul Anthony) whose professional coaching experience did not extend a year.
Sharks CEO and former Springbok captain John Smit had made the appointments of the former high-school coaching duo. Smit and MacLeod-Henderson had played as teammates for the Sharks. Anthony had coached Smit at Pretoria Boys’ High. Smit insisted on the duo’s potential amid criticism that it was a ‘jobs for pals’ situation.
Brendan Venter was another Smit had included in the Sharks set-up, as a consultant to the inexperienced professional coaching twosome. Venter had overseen the winning of the Currie Cup, but White emphasised one was a feeder competition and Vodacom Super Rugby was the toughest provincial competition in the world.
White was non-negotiable in his thinking. The Sharks, in the history of Super Rugby, had never won the title. He felt it was unacceptable that the Sharks continued to fail with the squad quality, the budget available and the strength of the Sharks global brand. He felt only a change of culture would bring a change in results.
The players were entrenched in their ways and accustomed to a rugby lifestyle that accommodated their social lifestyle.
White, with the Midas touch wherever he has coached, was not the right fit for the Sharks. They deemed him unpopular and the players flexed their muscle to force an immediate exit.
You would have believed the Sharks were wooden spoonists in the competition; such was the send-off of the World Cup winner.
The Sharks Currie Cup team then took a 50-point beating in their semi-final of the domestic competition and settled into an off-season in which everyone expressed happiness and confidence in the likes of MacLeod-Henderson and Anthony.
They are considered good guys in Durban and the players like them. But their happy team took 50 points in a semi-final.
And this happy team was made even happier with the appointment of former Springbok assistant coach Gary Gold as the director of rugby and effectively the head coach.
The pre-season was hyped because the players were content and had the right fit in a coaching staff, who would allow the players to express their natural talent.
Anthony was a media regular in talking up the attack of the Sharks. MacLeod-Henderson spoke of the culture, new defence coach Michael Horak spoke of the balance required on defence and attack. Gold, who only arrived a week before the season proper because of Japanese coaching commitments, added to the celebration of Sharks rugby, which in the 2015 Super Rugby season, would reward attack.
This squad was going to entertain, score tries and win over friends of the running game. White’s Sharks were deemed dour, boring and condemned for having allowed
a head coach to instill discipline, defence and conditioning as the pillars of their blueprint,.
White, in 2014, did the talking when it came to rugby matters. Now everyone had a voice and every day a player or one of the coaching staff was waxing lyrical about the joys of Sharks rugby and of the ambitions of an attack-minded team that wanted to entertain with five-pointers and not win because of an ability to deny the opposition five pointers.
Life, as a Sharks rugby player, was again good. Order had been restored.
Then the season started and the Sharks lost at home to the Cheetahs in the opener and the first month produced a team of individuals, ill-disciplined on the field, devoid of defensive desire and yet still convinced they were a content unit capable of winning the tournament.
White’s Sharks had conceded 22 tries in the winning of the SA conference and making the semi-finals. Gold’s happy campers in 2015, eight rounds into the competition, had conceded 22 tries. The Crusaders, reduced to 12 against the Sharks’ 15 at one stage, put 50 past the Sharks in Durban and the Lions beat them in Johannesburg at the weekend.
But Smit, Gold and the players don’t agree that the Sharks are a squad in crisis. It’s all smiles within the group in Durban and the leadership has been dismissive of critique around the coaching appointments and player recruitment.
White is coaching Montpellier in France – a team he has improved and are now favoured to make the play-offs. He has done it through discipline and a respect for defence. But White’s is a cussed name in Durban because he did it his way. That upset the players and support coaches.
Sure they won the SA conference and made the semi-finals but rugby was apparently made to feel like a job.
Players, it’s said, again have their voice and every coach is a voice in 2015. Rugby again feels like a sport and Monday to Friday is no longer an 8:30 start working day.
On-field discipline and defence are things that went with White.
Training is again a pleasure, as is playing because where White demanded discipline and winning, the perfect fit of coaches and players have agreed it’s about entertaining and freedom of expression.
Hence, the continued defence of team unity and disregard and annoyance at anyone who describes the 2015 campaign as a shambles and suggests the word crisis.
I am not a White fan. Period. I dislike the man and what he stands for.
but he is a very good coach. His methods work. No question about that.
That said; I don’t think you have to be a jerk to be a good coach.
There is a balance surely.
@ grootblousmile: so you think your Bulletjies are going to make JS’s life a misery(again) this weekend?
8 @ Tassies:
With my luck, no… the Sharks will pull a Godfish out the hat… hehehe
Getting back to that wonderful subject of the Sharks, I do think there is a place for culture in a side. Like a brand culture. The Sharks have a certain culture the way I interpret it. Just like my Stormers do and the rest of the rugby brands.
Jake does not fit that culture IMHO. The lifestyle in Durban does not = Jake White. Its like mixing egg into your beer. It’ll float there but it would look or taste nice.
@ grootblousmile: a glass hat? 🙄 fragile
Tassies wrote:
I don’t like the Snake but he gets results
I think the Sharks needed to get out of the laid-back mode where the coaches are their buddies
It’s like when the Proteas got rid of Jimmy Cook because he enforced discipline
I’m sure Ian Mac also enforced discipline in his time at the Sharks
Tassies wrote:
The Sharks will win it, they’ll play for pride
speaking of Gold: the man knows his rugby. Of that I have no doubt. I’ve attended one of his ‘chats’ at his old club; Hammies. He speaks well. Has a decent sense of humour. Appears to be both humble, loyal and knowledgable. All good qualities to be a top rate international coach. At the Sharks he’s dealing with a real basket of problems. I think he’s up for the challenge and has the credentials to turn it around. It wont be easy. It wont be quick. and he’s going to have to stand his ground against a, thus far, rather stubborn CEO.
@ Victoriabok: Howzit. He certainly did. But Mac is an infinitely nicer individual that White. I met him too once and he stuck me as a very decent bloke, who was under intense pressure at the time(the then Bok coach).
He copped an extremely raw deal from King Louis who also got results and was equally good at being a jerk.
Hey, forkoff PUB toe, julle is laat!
@ Victoriabok: I have that feeling too. Its not talent they lack. Its discipline and confidence they need to bring back to the party. If they get that right they’ll again be formidable and the rest us had better watch out.
flokkit forgot. Just popped out for a leak and the music stopped.
Tassies wrote:
He might be a good coach but he still has to win anything.
He needs to get rid of the egos
When HM arrived at the Bulls he let a lot of senior players go, including a few Boks, to get rid of the egos and install the new culture
I think it will snow before ludeke drops jje
20 @ MacroBull:
Dan moet dit maar gerus sneeu en klaarkry… hehehe
MacroBull wrote:
En Spies, en Callie en Visser
Is die reserwe haker Visagie familie van Callie?
@ Victoriabok:
Spies was eintlik nie so bad nie, hy was een van ons top verdedigers, ek onthou op n stadium het een van die reds maklik n speler of twee afgestamp en gelyk of hy deur is toe gryp spies hom betyds.
ek ken Jaco Visagie nie.
Visser kan maar in die dam gaan spring.
For the love of God drop JJ
What is the chance of the Sharks v Bulls game being moved or postponed with whats happening in Durban?
@ MacroBull:
Why are you worried that JPP and Frankie will be targets of xenophobic outrage because they play their rugby in Japan?
@ gunther:
haha I worried about the Bulls safety in a foreign country
You are right the Bullsust first share their successful spaza shop secrets for winning the Super Rugby Trophy with the Sharks.
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