Africa-Press – South-Africa. Marcell Coetzee will indeed not be able to spearhead the Bulls’ charge in the URC playoffs after he wasn’t granted clearance to play in Saturday’s crunch meeting with the Stormers in Cape Town.
SuperSport.com had earlier reported that the franchise had pulled out all the stops to tick the available administrative boxes following the 31-year-old Springbok flanker’s return from a stint with Kobelco Steelers in Japan, but were unsuccessful.
Ironically, Coetzee had appeared in the opening seven rounds of this season’s URC campaign before being de-registered for his “sabbatical” in the Far East.
Jake White, the Bulls’ director of rugby, noted that his inspirational skipper would naturally be missed, but also accepted that the complexities of having to co-ordinate the player’s registration status on two different continents was bound to present a challenge.
Coetzee was only able to return to Loftus this week because the Steelers finished the Japanese season outside of a playoff spot.
The franchise did previously admit that it had to offer their star senior player a temporary window to supplement his income overseas as SA Rugby’s own salary cap regulations and an unfavourable exchange rate means local teams can’t match the riches on offer at foreign clubs.
With Coetzee unable to travel to Cape Town, lock Ruan Nortje will continue to lead the Bulls on Saturday.
The Bulls loose trio consists of Marco van Staden, Cyle Brink and Elrigh Louw.
In the backline, Johan Goosen starts at flyhalf with Embrose Papier his halfback partner.
Bok speedsters Kurt-Lee Arendse (fullback) and Canan Moodie (wing) will provide threats out wide.
“It’s a loss. He’s been one of our better players and he’s the regular captain of our group,” White said on Friday.
“He’s got an aura about him, players enjoy playing alongside him. You can only control what you can control and what we needed to do was afford him the opportunity to have a sabbatical in Japan to allow us to keep him for three more seasons.
“If it meant him not playing this game for whatever reasons, de-registering and re-registering [in this case], I understand that. You can’t play two competitions [on different continents] at the same time and I can’t see a Japanese club de-registering a guy when there’s still three weeks of the local competition left.
“Would I have packaged Marcell’s in such a way that we keep him on our books until 2026 by letting him sit out this game? I’m sure I would have.”
However, while Coetzee – who’ll instead line up for the Currie Cup team against the Sharks at Loftus on Saturday evening – would’ve added undeniable value against the Stormers, his absence isn’t disruptive because the current loose trio of Marco van Staden, Cyle Brink and Elrigh Louw have settled decently as a combination over the course of the campaign.
“It creates an opportunity for someone else. We anyway have two Springboks in Marco and Elrigh in our loose trio and they’re vying for World Cup spots. I can’t see them giving anything less than their best this weekend,” said White.
The Bulls, who flew to Cape Town late on Friday morning, have had a thorough if muted build-up to the clash, predominantly because all the talk is now confined to the field of play.
“The preparation has been good. I don’t want to say it’s been quiet, but it’s a big week and because of that there actually hasn’t been much to talk about,” said the Bulls mentor.
“We don’t need to talk this week, we just need to play well. There’s nothing untoward about our preparation. It’s a knockout game against a really good Stormers team. They’re defending champions with ten incumbent Springboks, playing at home.
“It’s simply another one of those massive games for the Bulls.”
Kick-off is at 15:30 on Saturday.
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