Shake-up for Bulls as White turns to young blood

A physical, ball-carrying No 12 has almost been one of the consecrations at Loftus Versfeld through the years, but new Bulls coach Jake White looks set to deviate from that formula, which is why he released former captain and stalwart Burger Odendaal from his contract.

The 27-year-old Odendaal, who played 56 Super Rugby and 50 Currie Cup games for the franchise, recently moved across the Jukskei River and is set to turn out for the Lions once rugby resumes in South Africa, hopefully within the next two months.

This has left the Bulls with a very inexperienced midfield comprising Clinton Swart, Stedman Gans, Diego Appollis, Dawid Kellerman, Marnus Potgieter, Jay-Cee Nel and Wian van Niekerk, none of whom have any Super Rugby experience.

“The way the Bulls played in the past, there’s no question Burger was very important to the team as a captain and leader and added value as a player. But it was going to be very difficult to continue with him as a player if I could not guarantee him a starting spot, and because of the new salary caps you can’t afford a high-earner like him if he’s not going to play,” White said on Thursday.

“It’s like back in 2004 when I became Springbok coach and De Wet Barry and Marius Joubert were the centres, two great players and people. But in the 2007 World Cup my centres were Jean de Villiers, Francois Steyn and Jaque Fourie because I had evolved as a coach from using a player like De Wet into looking for something else.

“So when I looked at Burger I thought it would be like going back to De Wet Barry and we want to play differently.

“So telling him that up front meant he was able to go with the market value as captain, rather than staying and not playing and losing value, and he decided to go. Our CEO, Edgar Rathbone, was previously with the Lions and he helped broker the deal such that the player didn’t lose any money and has guaranteed playing time, so it’s a win-win for everybody.”

While the Bulls midfield may be raw and young, there is plenty of experience elsewhere with the likes of Gio Aplon, Cornal Hendricks, Morne Steyn, Duane Vermeulen, Arno Botha, Juandre Kruger and Trevor Nyakane, and White says he is encouraging an avuncular approach in order to help a new-look squad gel together.

“We’re not like other teams which have the luxury of being settled, and how quickly we can become a team is a big question,” he said.

“Duane Vermeulen, for example, does not know half the guys because they have never trained together, but there are things we can do to help that, which we are busy with, such as every week the players draw a name out of a hat and they have to have coffee with that guy and find out his story.

“Psychologist Henning Gericke has also been helping because we are probably the one team that needs cohesion.

“I heard there’s a possibility of us playing in two bubbles – the first six weeks with the four Super Rugby teams and then in the second round an eight-week Currie Cup like tournament with Griquas, the Pumas, Free State Cheetahs and Southern Kings – and I’m sure in 14 weeks we can get them tight-knit. We just want to make sure we get into the finals in December.”

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