The Vodacom Bulls will be without two kingpins ahead of this weekend’s Vodacom United Rugby Championship quarterfinal clash against Edinburgh, but still will be able to put out a very strong side for the Loftus Versfeld encounter.
Bulls coach Jake White confirmed that kingpin flyhalf Johan Goosen will not be available for the quarterfinal, as his “miraculous” recovery will be taking a bit longer. But there is still hope that if the Bulls progress that Goosen will be available for the side somewhere before the end of the season.
The flyhalf, who has had several operations already on his brittle knees, injured himself against Cardiff and was taken off on the stretcher cart, prompting an emotional response from White as he thought it could be a career-ending injury.
But Goosen underwent a procedure in Pretoria and the outcome was a lot more positive, and returned to training on Tuesday where he started running fully again. Just how long he will still be out is anyone’s guess, but there is hope that he will feature for the Bulls if they stay in the competition.
The other Springbok that has been ruled out is Gerhard Steenekamp, the powerful loosehead prop who has been an anchor in the Bulls impressive scrumming performances this season. Steenekamp also had a knee procedure, but had the unfortunate situation of picking up an infection which has set back his recovery.
The Bulls are still keen to have him back this season and it is a matter of time until he returns to the field.
The good news is that it is likely then that the other two players who were ruled out - scrumhalf Embrose Papier and Cobus Wiese, were seen taking part in the team’s training session at Loftus on Tuesday and should be ready to be selected this weekend.
White said the team wasn’t in a “bad place” ahead of the big clash, where they will look for some form of revenge after losing to the Scottish side in the EPCR Challenge Cup quarterfinal a month or so ago.
“What I can tell you is that we're not in a bad place. Obviously guys like Elrich Louw and Gerhard Steenekamp are injured. Gerhard and Johan Goosen are not available this week. But other than that, we're really in a good place. For this time of the year, for the amount of rugby we've played, we're actually not badly off.
“The positive - Goosen - people thought it was career ending. You can see him sitting behind me. He's now starting to run again. So, we just got to hopefully keep ourselves alive until the end of the competition and hopefully we'll have most of our guys, other than those long-term injuries, back.”
Springbok Jan-Hendrik Wessels has been doing a sterling job in Steenekamp’s place while Keagan Johannes has transformed himself back into a 10 after normally being seen as a 9 to fill the gap that Goosen has left.
The Bulls will name their side for the clash on Friday.