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'I will never forget': Ex-Bok aiming to put one over Jake White and his Bulls
By Simon Thomas
Springboks great Albert van den Berg says he would love to put one over on his former coach Jake White.
The ex-second row played under White when South Africa won the 2007 Rugby World Cup, winning 51 caps in all.
Now, in his new role as Scarlets forwards coach, he is set to lock horns with his former boss who is bringing the unbeaten Bulls to west Wales.
“From the time I spent under Jake, he brings a lot of confidence in you as a player,” said Van den Berg.
“He has got a clear game plan of what he wants from everyone in the team and he puts all of that together.
“I will never forget in 2004 when he pulled me into the squad, he said ‘If you guys do what I tell you to do, we will win the next World Cup’.
“He installed that belief in you that you were good enough to be there.
“He will get his guys fired up for this game. He has stated this is their year to perform.
“They have a lot of Springboks in their team. They are physical, they’ve got a good scrum, a good maul and they are really good on counter-attack.
“But we will be ready for them. We like to take on the big teams and the big names, so our guys will all be fired up for that.
“The spirit is up in the camp and everyone is happy after the win down in Cardiff.”
As for his reunion with his former mentor White, he added: “I would love to get one over on him. It’s a Friday night game, I think I would come back on Monday not sober! It would be great to get the win.”
For scrum-half Gareth Davies, who has scored four tries in the Scarlets’ last two games, it will be a first outing following his announcement that he is retiring from international rugby.
Hooker Akker van der Merwe captains the Bulls who are looking to make it four wins from four in the league.
Scarlets: Ioan Nicholas, Tom Rogers, Johnny Williams, Eddie James, Blair Murray, Ioan Lloyd, Gareth Davies, Kemsley Mathias, Ryan Elias, Henry Thomas, Alex Craig, Sam Lousi, Max Douglas, Josh Macleod (CAPT), Taine Plumtree
Replacements: Marnus van der Merwe, Alec Hepburn, Sam Wainwright, Jac Price, Dan Davis, Efan Jones, Sam Costelow, Macs Page
Vodacom Bulls: Henry Immelman, Sebastian de Klerk, Canan Moodie, Harold Vorster, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Boeta Chamberlain, Zak Burger, Jan-hendrik Wessels, Akker van der Merwe (CAPT), Wilco Louw, Ruan Vermaak, Cobus Wiese, Kuyenzeka Xaba, Reinhardt Ludwig, Cameron Hanekom
Replacements: Johan Grobbelaar, Dylan Smith, Francois Klopper, JF van Heerden, Celimpilo Gumede, Embrose Papier, Chris Barend Smit, Stedman Gans
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Latest Comments
Yeah nar I pretty much agree with that sentiment, wasn't just about the lineout though.
Yeah, I think it's the future of SR, even TRC. Graham above just now posting about how good a night it was with a dbl header of ENGvSA and NZvFrance, and now I don't want to kick SA or Argentina out of TRC but it would be great if in this next of the woods 2 more top teams could come in to create more of these sort of nights (for rugby's appeal). Often Arg and SA and both travel here and you get those games but more often doesn't work out right.
Obviously a long way off but USA and Japan are the obvious two. First thing we need to do is get Eddie Jones kicked out of Japan so they can start improving again and then get a couple of US teams in SRP (even if one its just a US based and augmented Jaguares).
It will start off the whole conferences are crap debate again (which I will continue to argue vehemently against), but imagine a 6 team Pacific conference, Tokyo Sunwolves (drafted from Tokyo JRLO teams), Tokyo All Stars (made up of best remaining foreign players and overseas drafts), ALL Nihon (best of local non Tokyo based talent, inc China/Korea etc, with mainland Japan), a could of West Coast american franchises and perhaps a second self PI driven Hawai'i based team, or Jagaures. So I see a short NFL like 3 or 4 month comp as fitting best, maybe not even a full round, NZvAUSvPAC, all games taking place within a 6hr window. Model for NZ will definitely still require a competitive and funded NPC!
On the Crusaders, I liked last years ending with Grace on the bench (ovbiously form dependent but thats how it ended) and Lio-Willie at 8. I could have Blackadder trying to be a 7 but think balance will be used with him at 6 and Kellow as 7. Scott Barrett is an international 6 sized player. It is just NZ style/model that pushes him into the tight, I reckon he'd be a great loose player, and saders have Strange and Cahill as bigger players (plus that change could draw someone like Darry back). Same with Haig now, hes not grown yet but Barrett hight and been playing 6, now that the Highlanders have only chosen two locks he'll be playing lock, and that is going to change his growth trajectory massively, rather than seeing him grow like an International 6.
Go to commentsDan Carter is the leading points scorer and leading points per game person for a player with significant tests. 2s RWC winner and member of the games greatest ever team. It's not even close. The only question of GOAT for rugby is whether McCaw deserves it given Carter's numbers.
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