All eyes may be on Vodacom Super Rugby at the moment, but the Blue Bulls’ Absa Currie Cup campaign was dealt a blow with the news that Junior Boks flyhalf Handre Pollard injured himself at practice on Tuesday.
With the Currie Cup set to start in five weeks’ time, Pollard hurt his AC joint and has been ruled out for between four to six weeks. The Bulls medical staff are hopeful that he will be ready in time for the start of the competition.
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Pollard, who was one of the stars in the Junior Boks’ team that won the 2012 IRB Junior World Championship, is set to get an extended run in the Currie Cup as he continues his rugby development. With Springbok Morne Steyn heading to France and back-up Louis Fouche out for six months with injury, a lot of responsibility will fall on the youngster’s shoulders.
With both Steyn and Fouche gone, there are few other options for the Bulls in the pivot position in terms of experience.
Other than Pollard, there is also Tony Jantjies and Willie du Plessis, both players who have excelled at Junior and Varsity Cup level and who are likely to see some action during the tournament.
Also good news is that the Bulls have decided to let the experiment to play Pollard at 12 go, and for the foreseeable future the youngster will be able to concentrate on playing at flyhalf and not at centre.
Pollard endured an unhappy IRB Junior World Championship this year as he was moved between the two positions after playing for most of the Varsity Cup at 12.
But he is known to prefer the number 10 jersey and will now be given ample chance to play there once he returns to fitness.
In my mind Willie du Plessis is the logical answer at flyhalf for the Blue Bulls at this stage, after all he is the guy which forced Tuks to move Pollard one out to inside centre during Varsity Cup.
Tony Jantjies just does not do it or compare favourably in terms of quality for Currie Cup honours.
Bulls must seriously consider to sign somebody like Demetri Catrakilis as a key signing to alleviate the problem that Morné Steyn will be in France. Demetri plays much the same type of game as Morné… as a dominating flyhalf who plays a tactically astute type of game… and of course his goal kicking is top drawer already. He would fit in well in a Bulls pattern and it could see his Bok ambitions being realised.
Just use Brok Harris for a while, no problem here
Jokes aside, Bulls should not have bought Lionell Cronje, not use him and then sell him to the lions.
He could have came in handy now
@ Gena_ZA:
Yip I share your sentiments on that one – the Lionel Cronje part, we may never know all the reasons but I did think it odd that he wasn’t given a chance to establish himself in the team at least before he was moved on.
There seems to be an awful lot of AC joint injuries lately, is it down to the big hits they are putting in with the tackles giving the shoulders such a pounding. Although this was in a practice so wonder what caused it, surely so close to the important knock out games they wouldn’t be really hard on each other in practice, maybe he just fell awkardly on it rather than hurting it in the impact of making a tackle?
No wonder the Bulls keep losing players, no team will have the budget to keep such a huge and well paid squad. And now they are expected to buy Demetri, never mind the small fortune that they spent on Pollard.
1 @ grootblousmile:
Cafe owner’s son would come back to Gauteng at the drop of a hat.
Very much a young man who likes the comforts of his parents’ house.
My Greek client’s son, and he are VERY good mates.
6 @ Scrumdown:
Good to hear… hehehe
Dimitri’s style of play is the closest to Morne’s out of all the SA Super Rugby 10’s
In a way it would make sense to have him as backup to Morne in the Bok team (less disruptions etc).
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