Bulls target selection consistency in remaining games
· Citizen
Bulls head coach Johan Ackermann said as far as he could, he would strive to select mostly the same matchday 23s in the coming weeks.
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There are just six regular-season United Rugby Championship (URC) games left before the play-offs, with the Champions Cup knockouts also in the mix, starting with a last 16 game against Glasgow Warriors in Scotland in three weeks.
It’s crunch time for the Pretoria Union, eighth on the URC table and within immediate catching distance of Connacht (also on 30 points but a lower points difference) and 10th-placed Ospreys on 29 points.
Meanwhile, only one team (the Lions) are fewer than nine points ahead of the Bulls.
Injuries complicate matters
While last year’s URC Next-Gen Player of the Season, Cameron Hanekom, should return from a long injury lay-off either against Cardiff this Friday or Munster next Saturday, the Bulls are now without Sebastian de Klerk, who may have broken a bone in his foot, and Harold Vorster, who failed his HIA after Saturday’s 32-19 defeat to the Stormers at Loftus.
When asked whether former Springboks Jan Serfontein and Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg may return to the matchday squad, after similarly recovering from injury a few weeks ago, Ackermann said he would prefer to keep consistency.
“As far as we can, my feeling is we need to have continuity,” the Bulls coach said.
“So, unless a player has played a lot of 80-minute games, which nobody has because we had the four-week break and then a one-week break, I feel we need to keep building on that continuity now.”
He said the injuries to De Klerk and Vorster may force changes, however.
“But as far as we can… unless we feel we need to change a player who can bring something different, because when you go through selection, there are a lot of times players are close to each other and you think this is the way the game will go, that we need his certain skill set.
“Unless that happens, I think we have to look at continuity for the next few weeks.”
When the Bulls host fifth-placed Cardiff on Friday, they will likely still be without Sintu Manjezi, Stravino Jacobs, Akker van der Merwe, Nama Xaba and Jannes Kirsten, who are all in the sick bay.