The Blue Bulls are sweating over a possible calf injury to star scrumhalf Francois Hougaard.

Sport24

There will be more clarity on Monday about the injury that forced the talented player off the field in the closing minutes of Saturday’s 32-18 Currie Cup win over the Lions at Coca-Cola Park.

The Bulls are hoping that he will be able to play in Friday night’s match against the Leopards.

Hougaard excelled at scrumhalf for the Bulls in his first start there in more than a year on Saturday after two recent Tests for the Boks in which he played for scarcely 10 minutes.

His performance for the Bulls at the weekend showed why Springbok coach Peter de Villiers allowed him to gain Test experience last year and why Fourie du Preez views him as his successor.

Hougaard popped up everywhere, but it was his ability to take the attacks further that played a particularly big role in the win over the Lions.

His performance will also let De Villiers sleep easily, especially if the powerfully built player can produce an equally good performance on Friday night.

Blue Bulls captain Gary Botha lauded Hougaard, Dewald Potgieter, Flip van der Merwe and Chiliboy Ralepelle for their contributions following their return from Springbok duty.

“The guys that returned from the Tri-Nations were terrific and brought that little extra to the team. If you consider that they only had one session with us it was a brilliant effort,” said Botha.

Potgieter had the best tackle count (19), with Hougaard on 15.

Botha said that the victory was just the tonic that the team that lost successive matches against the Sharks and Cheetahs needed.

“It’s about the team’s ability to improve every week and to that end this was a huge step forward. We performed well under pressure and that points to good things,” said Botha.

Blue Bulls coach Frans Ludeke was also a happy man. He had made five changes to the team that lost to Free State and all of them worked.

Ludeke also got the timing of his substitutions spot-on, with Chiliboy Ralepelle and Fudge Mabeta making good contributions.

The coach admitted that the match had followed the exact tactical route that he had hoped for. The Lions’ lack of patience and poor discipline at the breakdowns was viewed as a weakness prior to the game and Ludeke predicted that they would pay the price for it.

That is exactly what happened, with Jacques-Louis Potgieter able to kick six penalties.

“We knew the secret was to keep possession and show patience,” said Ludeke.

“We have outstanding goalkickers in the side and Pottie kicked like a machine. The performance gave us a lot of confidence for the coming weeks.”