By Nathan Gogela.
Ahead of tomorrow’s Currie Cup semi-finals, we managed to sit down with Jake White of the Bulls, John Plumtree of the Sharks, and Ivan van Rooyen of the Lions who all expressed different thoughts on how the competition effects their URC pre-season plans.
Earlier in the month, SA Rugby admitted they requested the URC to move the URC opening round fixtures due to them clashing with the Currie Cup playoffs.
The South African URC head coaches gave their review on the franchises performance in the Currie Cup thus far and status of the URC sides preparations for the upcoming season.
Jake White, Director of Rugby at Bulls
“Preparations have been going well, obviously we got a big game this weekend against the Sharks in the [Currie Cup] Semi-Final. Not only is the Currie Cup side doing well and the additions to our squad who have blended in nicely with us, “White said.
“I am looking forward to seeing how we can kick on from last year [URC Finalists], it’s exciting times for the Bulls, playing in 2 finals in 3 years and the new additions we got. There is a bit of momentum going with the Currie Cup playoffs, a very nice position to be in.”
John Plumtree, Head Coach at Sharks
“It is quite a unique situation, younger group of Currie Cup players to start with. The URC coaches coaching a squad of more experienced URC players and later in the competition using these Currie Cup games, the last round of the Currie Cup and semi-final as preseason games. It does a bit of flavour to the round [Currie Cup].”
“It was a big game for us last week against the Bulls in Durban and this weekend again in the semi-final. It’s certainly a unique situation where I have never been in before, not being able to use 24 players in a preseason game, rotate players or give them the right amount of game time.”
“The situation has added more pressure but the nice part about it, it has put our preseason games more in pressure situations with the URC starting soon. There are some benefits to it and there are parts to it that is not great. With the intensity of facing the Bulls in a Currie Cup Semi-Final at Loftus this weekend, it is not ideal situation but it is what it is. We have to navigate that with the group.”
Ivan van Rooyen, Head Coach at Lions
“The preseason has been tricky for us having to use the back end of the Currie Cup as preseason games for the URC. In training we had to use u19 players to prepare for the URC and the Bulls Currie Cup game as preparation.”
“Some Currie Cup players will be involved in the early rounds of the URC. But definitely the scheduling of the Currie Cup and URC has been tricky with the preparations but overall the preseason has been good.”
John Dobson, Head Coach at Stormers
“We are currently second bottom from the log in the Currie Cup. It has been a challenging period with the preseason, we took a different approach to the Currie Cup and giving opportunities to as many youngsters as we can and definitely would’ve liked to have done better results wise.”
“We would’ve preferred to be somewhere where the Sharks are [3rd Currie Cup Log], we weren’t expecting the postponement of the early rounds of the URC as it was on the same day as the Currie Cup final which took us out of the mix as we don’t have the resources or emotional ability to have done both.”
“We are now in a position whereby we are scrabbling for a preseason game now. I agree with Plum [Plumtree], it’s been an unusual preseason. I see his point [Plumtree] we would have liked to play in a Currie Cup semi-final in a prep point of view with the similarity to the URC in terms of intensity. But we are scrambling for a friendly before departing for Wales [URC fixture vs Ospreys 28 Sept.]. It’s certainly not the traditional preseason and I’m sure South African coaches would feel the same.”