CAPE TOWN - Damned if you do and damned if you don’t. That may be the conundrum facing Bulls coach Jake White this week as he prepares his team for a third warm-up game against the Stormers on Friday.
The 7pm clash at Loftus Versfeld would normally be seen as a big match, even if it is in preparation for the upcoming Rainbow Cup.
And if that’s the case, the Bulls would want to pick their strongest possible team to take on the Capetonians.
That would mean bringing back a multitude of Springboks such as captain Duane Vermeulen, vicecaptain Trevor Nyakane, Cornal Hendricks, Lizo Gqoboka, Ivan van Zyl, Morné Steyn, Marco van Staden and Arno Botha, as well as firstchoice stars like Stedman Gans, Elrigh Louw, Ruan Nortjé, Sintu Manjezi and Johan Grobbelaar.
But White may be better served by holding back the artillery, even for just one more week.
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The Bulls’ Currie Cup-winning team played in the final on January 30. That was just six weeks ago, a period that is hardly long enough for a proper pre-season.
Most of those senior players were given an extra two weeks off by White, and have returned over the last fortnight.
But the whole point of pre-season training is to get stronger physically, recover from any minor niggles and be in the best shape possible before the next tournament starts.
So, playing against the Stormers on Friday, just seven weeks after the Currie Cup final, is really not worth the risk.
It is a meaningless game in the greater scheme of things, and would be more useful to test out the extended squad, as White did in the last two matches against Eastern Province and the Pumas.
The bigger picture is of course the Rainbow Cup, and then the British and Irish Lions Tests.
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The European franchise tournament is scheduled to start on April 17, but there has been some uncertainty in recent weeks about when the SA teams would play their three overseas games, as it has to take place on one tour due to Covid19.
It appears as if the format could be amended, which would result in the SA teams playing each other at home first, before travelling overseas for the overseas games.
That is where resting his stars now would come in handy for White in the long run.
At the same time, he would also be doing Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber a favour.
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The Lions tour is likely to be played in the UK instead of South Africa due to the coronavirus situation in Mzansi, and it could even be increased to four Tests to make up for the lack of SA provincial matches that would’ve been played back home.
There are likely to be two warm-up Tests for the Springboks, against the USA and either Japan or Scotland, both of which would be played in the UK as well.
If things go according to plan, the Bok players could feature in the Rainbow Cup, then the Lions tour, straight into the Rugby Championship and the new PRO16 – in other words, from April 2021 to June 2022.