Captain Trevor Nyakane and how to handle a ref

The weekend marks a new milestone for Trevor Nyakane, who’ll be captaining the Bulls for the first time when they take on the Jaguares at Loftus.

Yet the influential Springbok prop takes the reins at a time where the franchise is under extreme pressure, having lost their first three matches of the Super Rugby campaign.

Given their treatment at the hands of Marius van der Westhuizen with his whistle last week, Nyakane has the added pressure of having to be his team’s voice of reason on the field – the man who has to strike a balance between being diplomatic and fighting for fair treatment.

And against a shrewd and prickly Jaguares outfit, that’s no easy task.

But Nyakane is ready for the challenge.

Here’s what to expect from his leadership.

How he’ll approach communication with the referee…

Just like you study the way your opponents play, you also study the referee. He also feels pressure and you need to have an indication of how he responds to that. We try to work out a system in terms of how to approach the said referee, whether he responds easily or not to enquiries. A lot of players tend to shout things at refs that they shoot down. 

We try to figure it out. Even if some refs are more easier to talk to, some of them are very fact-based. When you come to them with a question, you need to get your terminology correct and provide some sort of “evidence” at least. Timing is also important. Do you approach him at the next scrum? Do you wait for a break in play? It’s a very dynamic way you have to approach it. I’ll try to use my judgment as best I can. 

On the honour of captaining the side…

It’s a pleasure to be appointed. We all know where we are right now and what needs to be done, thankfully we have a few players with leadership qualities around. We’ll all be working hand-in-hand in trying to steer the ship the right way. It’s not going to be easy, but we’ll be sticking together. I think my job will be made much easier with them around. 

Enjoying the ‘brotherhood’ with front-row partners Lizo Gqoboka and Jaco Visagie…

I definitely enjoy the consistency, that we get the opportunity to play together for an extended period of time. Lizo and Jaco are great players in my view. (Scrum) coach Daan Human has certainly brought something back into our scrum, that dominance. It’s been great to have him here and who understands the whole dynamics of a scrum. He’s done a lot for me and he’s done a lot for us as a front row. 

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