United Rugby Championship: Bulls sweat on injury news for trio after Connacht win

Bulls boss Jake White admits their 28-14 win over Connacht at Loftus Versfeld on Friday came at a cost with injury concerns over three of his players.

Newly-capped Springbok Canan Moodie left the field with a hamstring injury. At the same time, Sbu Nkosi suffered a concussion, and Johan Grobbelaar damaged his ankle in the United Rugby Championship Round Three clash.

Nkosi to return first

It is a waiting game for White to see how long he will be missing the trio, with Nkosi set to be the first of the players to return after adhering to the 10-day stand-down period as part of the return-to-play protocol for head knocks.

“It’s a tough game, hey. Everyone gets injuries, so we’re just going to have to find out. They are going to have scans – I don’t know if they can have them tonight (Friday)… probably tomorrow (Saturday) – and then we’ll do an assessment,” White said after the clash.

“At least it’s not all long-term injuries. Sometimes it’s cruciate ligaments or Achilles injuries, and you’re out for eight or nine months.

“One’s a head knock (Nkosi), one’s a sort of tight hamstring and the other one is an ankle injury. So, hopefully we will get some good news tomorrow.

“I will only know tomorrow (if they are out of the tour). Concussion is a minimum of 10 days, so thank God we played on Friday. So, he (Nkosi) might be available for the second game. Canan, I’m not sure about his hamstring, how long that will take to heal.

“And then the ankle one, I will get the prognosis from the scan tomorrow, and I will know whether or not Grobbies will be good enough to either be part of the tour or wait for us to come back.”

Frustration with water breaks

White thought his side had a solid game defensively and expressed his frustration over the water breaks taken during URC games.

“It’s a tough comp, so to get four tries… We had a couple disallowed. I thought at times, we played really well,” the Bulls coach said.

“Defensively, I thought we were outstanding. When you consider we played 30 minutes with 14 guys, and then probably eight of those with 13 guys… Defensively, I thought we were much better than we were last week.

“One area that I do think we need to look at is these water breaks. I’m not quite sure whether these water breaks – at different times of the game, decided by the match officials – are working.

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“I don’t know how other teams feel, but I generally think it’s not helping us, because you never know when the water break’s coming. It could come at a really important time of the game. It could come when you are building pressure.

“So, I think we’ve got to relook at these water breaks. Either it must be 20-minute slots, where you know you’ve got 20 minutes and then it’s a water break, or we must just can them. I don’t think the game is getting the shape that it could have.”