Pretoria – As the Bulls announced their team to face the Hurricanes there were two very interesting talking points – one about a player who has not made the grade (yet) and one who came in from nowhere.

Coach John Mitchell announced his side to face the Hurricanes on Saturday, notably excluding Springbok tighthead prop Trevor Nyakane, and including upstart newcomer Thembelani Bholi.

For Nyakane, the move to tighthead has essentially not worked, and Mitchell is on record as saying “6, 8, 10 and 12 minutes” as a tighthead in test rugby was hardly helping his development as a player.

So Nyakane is essentially being seen as a loosehead again, and at the moment that gives him problems in the Bulls set-up.

While a great versatile player on the bench, who has also been seen as a reserve hooker if the need arises, Nyakane is currently finding that in a field of specialists, versatility is not always the best option.

It isn’t a train smash for the Bok prop, but it is a wake-up call that he will need to heed if he is going to get some Super Rugby game time this year.

Standards have been set and in Nyakane’s case, at the moment, he simply doesn’t measure up to what Mitchell has set for him, hence no place in the starting 23.

At loosehead Pierre Schoeman and Lizo Gqoboka are fighting it out for a place while Frans van Wyk – not to be confused with the ex-Province prop Francois van Wyk – has impressed enough to make the tighthead spot his own.

Mitchell has been quite clear on pre-season form counting a lot, and in this case the former SA under-20 prop from Delareyville has made an impression, a significant one.

Van Wyk is seen as a future Springbok and is highly rated by the team’s coaching staff, so much so that he will start on Saturday at the tender age of 22, his biggest game since the Currie Cup final appearance for Western Province as a substitute.

Still, for Nyakane, the future is unclear at the moment and it very much depends how he handles the new challenge that has been set for him.

“The team has basically evolved through the pre-season but not all plans have come together and some athletes are still behind the timelines and they will be ready in time, but ultimately we’ve gone for the best mix for the way we have prepared and the athletes who have performed during the trial phase,” Mitchell said in announcing the team on Thursday.

“Trevor is not far away, but really it may be one week, two weeks, it really depends on what he does in the next two weeks. Clearly if there is an injury then it becomes a different plan, but he is going well. He is a player who plays both sides of the scrum and we have some healthy competition within the group. The other guys realise it comes down to what you do as opposed to what your past has presented.”

In the counter-balance to Nyakane’s absence, comes former Southern Kings flanker Thembelani Bholi, an upstart who was expected to slot into the reserve squad and quietly work his way into the Bulls set-up after a few months.

Instead, the hard-working, lively flanker has surprised even Mitchell and impressed with his play – especially in the pre-season against the Jaguares, taking the chance that has been offered to him.

Bholi’s form, coupled with a lack of minutes for co-captain Nick de Jager, means he gets a start when few would have predicted this, and is the Bulls wildcard against the Hurricanes.

Jannes Kirsten returns next week and Jason Jenkins is also earmarked for a seven starting spot at some point, so Bholi knows he needs to grab this opportunity.

“Firstly I think Burger would share my sentiments that he is enjoyed by his peers, mainly because he is very quiet about how he goes about things, he has eliminated some of the errors from his game in the trial phase. When he first started pre-season, for some guys coming to a new club could be quite nerve-wracking for them and clearly he wasn’t aligned to how we do things and it took him a while.

“But he has demonstrated some excellent work both on and off the field. He has leaned up enormously and the guys say he is pretty hard as well. I wouldn’t like to run into him and hopefully a few Hurricanes don’t like to run into him either.”

There aren’t any other major suprises in the Bulls squad as they kept with the tried and trusted stalwarts that have all been there before.

But the bar has been set and in the first selection, another Springbok is missing. Some may find it strange, but in a side where form is being rewarded and reputations ignored, the Bulls have drawn a line in the sand.

It now waits to be seen just how successful that strategy will be in an unforgiving competition against the toughest of opposition.

Teams

Bulls

15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Travis Ismaiel, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Burger Odendaal (captain), 11 Johnny Kotze, 10 Handre Pollard, 9 Andre Warner, 8 Hanro Liebenberg, 7 Thembelani Bholi, 6 Roelof Smit, 5 Lood de Jager, 4 RG Snyman, 3 Frans van Wyk, 2 Jaco Visagie, 1 Pierre SchoemanSubstitutes: 16 Adriaan Strauss, 17 Lizo Gqoboka, 18 Conraad van Vuuren, 19 Nic de Jager, 20 Marco van Staden, 21 Embrose Papier, 22 Marnitz Boshoff, 23 Divan Rossouw 

Hurricanes

15 Matt Proctor, 14 Julian Savea, 13 Vince Aso, 12 Ngani Laumape, 11 Wes Goosen, 10 Ihaia West, 9 TJ Perenara, 8 Gareth Evans, 7 Ardie Savea, 6 Brad Shields (captain), 5 Sam Lousi, 4 Vaea Fifita, 3 Ben May, 2 Ricky Ricctelli, 1 Toby Smith

Substitutes: 16 James O’Reilly, 17 Chris Eves, 18 Alex Fidow, 19 Murray Douglas, 20 Blade Thomson, 21 Jamie Booth, 22 Beauden Barrett, 23 Ben Lam

Read the story on SuperSport.com

Cape Town – Former Springbok coach Jake White says SA Rugby should heed advice from South Africa’s new President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Ramaphosa delivered his inaugural State of the Nation address in Cape Town last Friday.

This followed the resignation of former President Jacob Zuma, who stepped down after being recalled by the African National Congress (ANC).

White, who currently coaches Japanese side Toyota Verblitz, took note of Ramaphosa’s speech and feels several of the points raised can be applied for the greater good of South African rugby.

“SA Rugby should almost copy and paste his speech and swap political terms with words like ‘rugby’, ‘schools’, ‘clubs’, ‘players’ and ‘administrators’,” White wrote via a column for the All Out Rugby website.

White continued: “He said his words were not lip service and that things would be measured, and he spoke about taking ownership of that. And that’s exactly what we need in SA Rugby – people taking ownership and responsibility for getting it right.

“The President said he’s not going to tolerate corruption and one of the things that resonated with me is that he said no government member is going to be involved in procurement. Instead, there will be a special committee to deal with procurement. It should be the same in our rugby – no jobs for pals.”

White also hinted that the rugby governing body should bring in new personnel.

“We’re all eager to see who the President appoints to work with him in rolling out his plans and we’re all hopeful he’ll pick the best people for the job. It shouldn’t be any different in SA Rugby – hiring the best people for the job and having the people in charge who take responsibility for achieving the objectives. He spoke about transformation, equality and getting the most out of the youth. That goes hand in hand with rugby.”

CLICK HERE to read Jake White’s full column on the All Out Rugby website

In December last year, White had also hit out at SA Rugby top brass when he called for a full review of its board. White questioned that Allister Coetzee, who was subsequently sacked as Springbok coach, should not carry all the blame for the team’s woes.

Coetzee won only 11 of 25 Tests in charge of the national team (44% win-ratio) and was relieved of his duties earlier this month.

White also criticised SA Rugby for hiring people “without even asking them to apply for positions”.

The 54-year-old coached the Springboks between 2004 and 2007, but his contract was not renewed despite winning the 2007 Rugby World Cup.

He has also coach the Brumbies, Sharks and Montpellier.

Cape Town – Phew … job done.

Those are likely to have been the dominant sentiments of Lions coach Swys de Bruin and his Stormers counterpart Robbie Fleck after the franchises got their Super Rugby 2018 campaigns off to winning starts on Saturday.

Far from flawless in either the Ellis Park or Newlands triumphs, both teams were pushed hard – by the Sharks and Jaguares respectively – in round one and would not have shed too many tears about earning “standard” victories rather than ones with bonus points.

The Lions, tournament runners-up for each of the last two seasons, were camped on their own line when the final whistle sounded on a compelling derby (26-19), the Sharks having the well-earned consolation of a losing log point for ending within seven points.

If anything in Cape Town, where a disappointing first-day crowd of 18 000 would have sent a shiver down the spines of officials at crisis-plagued WP Rugby, the 28-20 outcome slightly flattered the Stormers, who had to repel a fierce second-half onslaught from the Argentineans.

Certainly the better game – no surprise considering the later start on the Highveld and the gruelling afternoon heat further south? – was the all-SA affair, leaving many observers, no doubt, steadfast in their belief that the Lions and Sharks may very well carry our flag the most spiritedly in the competition this year.

Yes, the men from Durban are nought from one, but will hardly be discouraged at this infant stage after going toe to toe with Warren Whiteley’s outfit, and have a fortnight now to sharpen up for the visit to the unenviable KwaZulu-Natal summer humidity of the Waratahs as they are the only side on a bye next weekend.

They will also be mindful that if they could run the Lions so close in the Big Smoke, there is every reason to feel hopeful they can level things up in the home return fixture in late June.

Although there were other, pleasing aspects to Saturday’s bruising but high-tempo tussle, it basically boiled down, in the final analysis, to the clear superiority of the Lions scrum being enough to trump the dominance of the Sharks’ lineout.

The hosts made a massive statement, even while some spectators were probably still taking their seats, with an immediate, demon scrum, burly Lions loosehead prop Jacques van Rooyen (on his 50th appearance) crumpling backwards poor Thomas du Toit, who also prefers that berth but is having to make a fist of filling the Coenie Oosthuizen void at tighthead instead.

Although the visitors clawed back a semblance of stability in that area at times afterwards, the overall Lions mastery of that set-piece was nevertheless a key influencer in the final outcome.

But with towering captain Ruan Botha to the fore as a wrecker/interceptor of the Lions’ plans on their own throw, the lineouts were monopolised by the Sharks to ensure they kept a pretty firm foothold on the contest themselves.

Both teams also left a few points out there, with flyhalves Robert du Preez (otherwise a constructive menace with his strong, flat running) and Elton Jantjies botching important place-kicks.

Perhaps the best summary of the match is to venture that the Lions did enough to serve notice that they intend being at the races right to the end again in 2018, despite some understandable suggestions that Johan Ackermann and others moving away from the franchise might see a noticeable downturn.

Having Whiteley back at both their spiritual and game-plan coalface made a big difference – the Bok captain is still short of a gallop but produced clever touches and showed customary composure and good judgement – and De Bruin and his lieutenants in the booth would have been chuffed by the emergence of some Young Turks as well.

It was tough having to start the season without seasoned wings Courtnall Skosan and Ruan Combrinck, but there was crackle and pop in abundance from rookie replacements Aphiwe Dyantyi (especially) and Sylvian Mahuza.

Both did more than enough – Dyantyi, 23, notched an early candidate for a tries-of-the-season package – to suggest that the jerseys are in sound hands until the more seasoned characters return to contention.

One concern for the gallant, ceaselessly grafting losing side was the surrender to injury during the contest of No 8 Dan du Preez (his shoulder or upper arm looked in some discomfort) and scrumhalf Cameron Wright.

Du Preez’s twin brother Jean-Luc is due back some time in March, so that is a reasonable compensating thought, but if Wright has more than a niggle, it will be a worry: the Sharks are already low on No 9s with Louis Schreuder on the crocked list.

Speaking of setbacks, Stormers mastermind Fleck has a real issue with experienced tight forwards – the lack thereof, right now – as the so-so triumph over the Jaguares saw further unsettling developments in that area.

As the Stormers prepare to set off on their three-match Australasian tour, they were already in a position, pre-Jaguares, where Eben Etzebeth, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Frans Malherbe and Scarra Ntubeni couldn’t begin the campaign, and then first-choice hooker Bongi Mbonambi was a Friday pull-out for illness reasons.

Fast-emerging Bok tighthead Wilco Louw was already walking a tightrope after a hip problem, and the fact that he did not emerge for the second half at Newlands – novice Carlu Sadie fared well enough on debut – seemed to suggest all is not hunky-dory with him, either.

As things stand, and primarily because of the ongoing absence of several “hardebaarde”, the Stormers look as though they might do well to earn even one victory abroad, from dates with (in order) the Waratahs, Crusaders and Highlanders …

Next weekend’s fixtures (home teams first, all kick-offs SA time):

Friday, February 23

Highlanders v Blues – 08:35

Rebels v Reds – 10:45

Saturday, February 24

Sunwolves v Brumbies – 06:15

Crusaders v Chiefs – 08:35

Waratahs v Stormers – 10:45

Lions v Jaguares – 15:05

Bulls v Hurricanes – 17:15

Bye: Sharks

*Follow our chief writer on Twitter: @RobHouwing

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Cape Town  – Andile Phehlukwayo says the Proteas would dearly like to get early wickets to put the India middle order under pressure in the fifth ODI in Port Elizabeth.

The seam-bowling allrounder says that to date in the series the Proteas plans with the ball have not yielded the results they would have liked but he insisted their was no quit in the group.

Speaking after training at St George’s Park Phehlukwayo said: “Obviously they have been batting really well.

“It will be really nice for us to expose their middle order [early on].

“At the same time we don’t really want to look too far ahead.”

Phehlukwayo explained the thinking behind the decision to send him in ahead of Chris Morris at the Wanderers, something that paid dividends as he quickly smashed the Proteas past the revised target.

He said: “Obviously‚ the game plan changed.

“It was a left-hander for left-hander thing‚ so when David Miller got out‚ I had to go in and keep the combination going. I was told to look to be positive‚ watch the ball and execute my game plans that I have.”

The Proteas are determined to fight back in the series having lost the first three matches and will be keen to adapt to the conditions in PE faster than India.

Phehlukwayo added: “It was a game plan we had in our change room to be really positive and look to score against them. Here in PE it is obviously home conditions.

“We know the conditions very well and we train specifically for them. The guys know their individual game plans. We know we have to be really positive.

“I think the team has been really positive.

“We have obviously been training really hard. We have good momentum now from this last game. We didn’t think we were too far away from a victory.

“We have been very specific about our training and the team environment is really good.

“The setup is really positive. We have a good fighting spirit and a good culture. It’s never down and out. We always looking to fight back.

The fifth ODI between South Africa and India gets underway at 13:00 from St George’s park on Tuesday, February 3.