The Bulls and Stormers are both looking to strengthen their teams on tour.
There will be no rest for a number of Rugby Championship winning Springboks as they are set to be thrown straight into the United Rugby Championship (URC) mix for their franchises this coming weekend.
The Stormers and Bulls, who depart on three-match overseas tours, have already confirmed that they will be linking up with most of their Bok players in the UK, and some of them could slot directly in for their games this weekend.
The Lions only have one Bok in the current squad, Morne van den Berg, and the Sharks have a whole host of Boks, but neither have said whether they will link up with them for their final tour matches, or if they have been sent back to SA to rest ahead of their next two home games in the competition.
Options for Stormers
For the Stormers, who have enjoyed a superb start to the season with a 35-0 thumping of Leinster and a 26-10 win over Ospreys, they will be happy with the performance of their current group ahead of their first tour match against Scarlets in Wales.
But they may still bring some of their guys in, despite flyhalf Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, utility back Damian Willemse and scrumhalf Cobus Reinach having played a number of games for the Boks recently.
“The guys who have played (the first two games) have done extremely well. Guys like Wandi (Wandisile Simelane), Dan (du Plessis) in the centres, and (flyhalf) Jurie (Matthee) as well,” explained Stormers assistant coach Norman Laker at a press conference on Monday.
“But it (having their Boks back) gives us different options. Some guys might be hurt after the past two games with a few bumps and bruises. We will have to see how those injuries flare up after a long flight to Wales.
“We will make a decision later in the week. So we could swap a few things around, or possibly stick with the same team (that beat Leinster and Ospreys).”
Bulls looking for balance
Bulls coach Johan Ackermann will also have a conundrum on his hands on who to bring in for their match against Ulster in Ireland, with some of their Boks having played a lot recently, while others haven’t featured as much and could be fresh and ready.
Guys like flyhalf Handre Pollard and utility forward Marco van Staden could come straight back into the mix, while props Wilco Louw and Jan-Hendrik Wessels, lock Ruan Nortje and utility back Canan Moodie might be managed more conservatively.
“The challenge is finding the balance between integrating them back into our systems and managing their workloads for the Boks. World Rugby’s 30-game cap makes it even more complicated,” said Ackermann after the Bulls’ win over Leinster on Saturday.
“We’ve got individual plans in place, but injuries have already forced one or two changes. Hopefully we’ll integrate them quickly. It’s probably the biggest challenge for Handre, just because he’s the newest addition, while the others have played with us before.”
