Bulls to rotate Willie le Roux more after he earns 100 Springbok caps

Bulls boss Jake White said he will rotate Willie le Roux in the squad more often after he reaches his 100-cap milestone for the Springboks.

After playing the majority of his career at fullback, Le Roux has stood in at flyhalf in the last month for the Bulls. This has been due to last year’s Golden Boot winner Johan Goosen sustaining an 8-10 week knee injury and the form of Boeta Chamberlain proving too unreliable to earn a starting position.

While White said the 98-Test star had proven he could play at number 10 at the highest level, he was aware the 35-year-old needed more rest in the latter years of his career.

“He’ll probably be glad to hear what I’m telling you now because I haven’t told him. But I’m not going to use Willie every single week. I’m probably going to rotate him more after he hopefully gets 100 Tests,” White said.

Le Roux to receive less game time

“After he’s got 100 Tests, he’ll be a contracted player at the Bulls. I can’t see him again being around four years or another two and a half years into the [2027] Rugby World Cup, but again if he is that’s up to the national coaches.

“I’m going to try use Willie the best I can to mentor on-field decisions, game management etc. with guys like Devon [Williams], Canan [Moodie], Kurt-Lee [Arendse]. Those are the sort of players I am looking at keeping andthere will be new players coming here.”

Le Roux is in the middle of negotiating a contract extension with the Pretoria outfit. When asked about this during the week, Le Roux said: “We’re in discussions. Hopefully, in the coming months, we’ll know what’s going on.”

White said Le Roux might play two weeks on and two weeks off, or one week on and three weeks off, after his 100 Springbok caps.

“I’ll just look at the draw and see when we’ll need him in terms of who we put as combinations.”

White said rest periods enforced by the SA Rugby Union will play a role as well in this.

Veteran loving the challenge of his new position

Le Roux told media this week he was enjoying playing at flyhalf but he was mindful of keeping his body fit and rested in his latter years.

The utility back has not had any major injuries recently though he did experience pain in his groin in the match against the Sharks two weeks ago.

This turned out to be nothing serious and White put it down to all the kicking at posts Le Roux had done in training as the player anticipated he would do more goal kicking now he was flyhalf.

As it turned out, David Kriel has still been entrusted with post-kicking duties and has been decent enough in that regard.

However, Springbok flyhalf Handré Pollard has reportedly signed to join the Bulls in June. Only Johan Goosen could conceivably be given goal-kicking duties over the Springbok ace.