The Blue Bulls’ performances over the past two weeks, first against the SA-A team and then against the attack-oriented onslaught of the desperate Lions in the Currie Cup, proved once again that Jake White and his colleagues are probably light years ahead of any other local management group in terms of the squad system.

With another world-class player like Jacques du Plessis soon joining other stars such as Marcel Coetzee, Johan Goosen, Harold Vorster and Lionel Mapoe who returned from Europe to play in Pretoria under White’s new dispensation, it seems that the current champion team of the Blue Bulls can only get better.

Enemies and haters of the Bulls have been running around with the silly story for months now that the Bulls are only doing well because of the big money their new shareholders provide for them to be able to buy top players.

However, the truth is known to most rugby enthusiasts who follow the game at all levels in Pretoria. Where the Bulls’ scandalous previous management dropped the ball between 2010 and 2018 and became an example of how a top rugby union can be destroyed if the fish rots from the head, since early 2018 the new management has been systematically got the ship back on course by focusing on the right aspects.

This goal was achieved with the right vision, but also by a new management that made things happen with their holistic approach and not just stayed at nice talks without action.

After the management appointed a world-class director of rugby (White) and a dynamic young CEO (Edgar Rathbone), they began – in terms of the holistic approach – to support and strengthen club rugby as a sound foundation for the rest of the structure.

This strategy – and not the jealous gossipers’ so-called purchase of top players due to unlimited money – is probably the secret with which the Bulls will ensure long-term sustainability and success.

Clubs are not only becoming the breeding grounds of top coaches for the system, but by closing the gap between the professional players and the club players, the Bulls have created a whole new dynamic for rugby in Pretoria.

First the Carlton League was expanded with two extra clubs (Pretoria and Tuine/Grizzlies) and then for the first time in many years the Blue Bulls Rugby Union offered the clubs financial support not only to cover their operational costs, but also to survive last year’s action drought due to the Covid-19 crisis.

At the start of the current season, all the professionally contracted players were fairly divided between the seven Carlton Cup clubs and they were instructed to be available to the clubs when they were not playing for the Bulls. This was a master move by the Bulls management in terms of maintaining a squad system under the new burden of the various leagues in which the Bulls are involved.

Take as an example promising young players such as Simphiwe Matanzima, Richard Kriel, WJ Steenkamp and Muller Uys, who have not had much playing time with the Bulls as such since the beginning of the current season. They all went to play for their respective clubs – to which they were assigned – to stay sharp and match fit. And when the opportunity presented itself over the past few weeks to give them a chance to play in the Currie Cup tournament, these men were ready and full of confidence.

This new dispensation not only made the professional player corps look at the amateur setup with new eyes, but it also attracted other professional unions to come and look for talent at the local Carlton Cup clubs.

The Blue Bulls themselves approached two promising men, hooker Sydney Tobias of the Northam Rhinos and front row man Boeta du Preez of ABE Midas Naka Bulls to get involved in the Currie Cup group, while Centurion Rugby Club’s tight head prop, Cassie Bezuidenhout, was recruited by the Pumas when they offered him a two-year professional contract.

There is also great interest in the very strong u.20 club league of the Blue Bulls and several recruiters from top unions are regularly spotted at matches of this league.

Do you have more information about the story?

Please send us an email to editorial@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.

For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites: Rekord East

For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram