All eyes will be whether Friday night is the long awaited return to action for Springbok loose forward Cameron Hanekom, but a few injuries picked up in the loss against the DHL Stormers means that the Vodacom Bulls will need to make a few changes in any case ahead of their Vodacom United Rugby Championship match against Cardiff.
Hanekom’s injury saga has been dragging on for months after the loose forward tore his hamstring badly in the URC semifinal back in May last year. While a long rehabilitation period was always on the cards because of the injury, Hanekom’s own self-imposed target date in December passed and he still isn’t back on the field in March.
Hamstrings are notorious for confounding timelines for return, as any sports physician will attest to, but Hanekom has been chomping at the bit to get back into action and the Bulls have missed their 2024/5 URC Player of the year as well.
The one-test Springbok looks set to return either this Friday or next, as long as there aren’t any setbacks, and with him having two serious injuries in two seasons (the last one was a torn knee ligament in the previous season’s URC final), one can understand the Bulls being ultra cautious on his return.
So while Johan Ackermann is only set to name his team on Thursday, the biggest question will be whether Hanekom has made enough progress in his recovery programme to take the giant leap to get back onto the field.
Fellow Bulls loose forward Elrigh Louw also had a long layoff and took a few games to get going again, but the Sheriff, as he is known within the team, is running at full speed again and is as physical as he ever was.
The other two questions for the Bulls in selection are enforced.
Midfielder Harold Vorster failed a concussion test after the loss against the Stormers, and hence can’t be considered for selection while he goes through the return to play protocols.
Winger Sebastian de Klerk is also out after he “broke a bone in his foot”, according to Ackermann. De Klerk’s diagnosis is not known yet, but Ackermann did mention it was a bone that had been broken before and they would wait for the medical diagnosis before knowing how serious it is.
So the question then becomes what do the Bulls do in the backline?
While there are several points they need to fix up front, especially after the Stormers dominated them in that department, the backline - apart from frustrating handling errors - looked rather dangerous in the past few games.
Springbok Canan Moodie could move to the wing to cover for De Klerk, or the Bulls could decide to use someone like Devon Williams or Cheswill Jooste on the wing. Jooste has been one of the finds of the season and much is expected of the Junior Boks star.
Whether he is fit or not is unknown, as is the injury to Stravino Jacobs, who was listed as injured on the team release last weekend.
If the Bulls decide to go that route, Moodie could remain at outside centre and either David Kriel or Jan Serfontein are the candidates for inside centre to replace Vorster.
Kriel is the swiss army knife for the Bulls and can play anywhere, but has done really well at 15, which looks to be the position he is the most dangerous in.
Serfontein injured his shoulder in December and has been out, making a brief return in the friendly against Boland late last month. His talent is unquestioned, but the Bulls need to decide whether or not the lack of match fitness is an issue.
The other candidate is Stegman Gans, more a 13 but has been known to slot in at other positions.
But just how much the Bulls want to shuffle their backline remains to be seen, and with the short turnaround, they are likely to keep the changes to a minimum.
The team will be announced on Thursday.