Cape Town - Considering the Springbok flyhalf problems, the return of Johan Goosen to top-level rugby at the weekend was a matter of national importance.
And while the 30-year-old didn’t exactly set the house on fire in the Bulls’ 33-31 United Rugby Championship (URC) victory over Edinburgh at Loftus Versfeld, coach Jake White was delighted to see his star signing get through about 54 minutes of action.
Goosen was picked at fullback as White wanted to ease him in following over 11 months on the sidelines, while also rewarding Chris Smith for a stellar campaign in the No 10 jersey last season.
It was a selection that would not have pleased Bok coach Jacques Nienaber, though, who is searching for a solution in the pivot position as Handre Pollard is out for the rest of the year and Elton Jantjies is dealing with off-field issues.
Damian Willemse proved that he can do the job as the chief playmaker, but missed the past weekend’s 38-21 Rugby Championship win over Argentina in Durban with concussion, which saw Frans Steyn fill in at No 10 – with the veteran not showing anything that suggests he could be a long-term solution.
Stormers star Willemse will be back for the end-of-year tour, which kicks off on November 5 against Ireland in Dublin, but Nienaber has fielded him at fullback for most of the season and sees his future in the last line of defence.
The Bok boss is waiting on Goosen to find his feet quickly over the next few weeks in the URC in order to consider him for the Europe tour.
But understandably, the former Cheetahs prodigy wasn’t prominent for the Bulls against Edinburgh as he gets the feel for the game again following a serious knee injury.
Goosen made a few carries and tackles, but was a long way off from the man who called the shots for the Bulls in last year’s Currie Cup.
“That is one massive, massive bonus for me: that he got through that 55 minutes unscathed. That will be a massive amount of confidence for him,” White said.
“And Chris (Smith) played well. I liked that he played well, and didn’t just think, ‘Ah well, that means the Springbok’s coming back and therefore I am going to end up not able to play to my strengths’.
“So, hopefully that will be the beginning of a long stint with us, week after week.”
Goosen’s journey will continue in Friday’s encounter against Connacht at Loftus Versfeld (6.30pm kick-off), where it will be interesting to see if he will get a run at flyhalf.
White will have to make some big calls as he will get a real boost from returning Boks Kurt-Lee Arendse, Canan Moodie and Sbu Nkosi. They could just make up the back-three against Connacht, which may see Goosen play off the bench and come on at flyhalf, with Smith starting.
Connacht went down 38-15 to the Stormers in Stellenbosch at the weekend, but they fell away a bit once centre Bundee Aki was red-carded in the final quarter.
They beat the Bulls in Ireland last year, and the Pretoria side will need to shore up their defence and adapt to the referee quicker than they did against Edinburgh.
“I thought they (Edinburgh) were very clever. They are very, very hard on the breakdown. They don’t give you any rhythm to play off, and we have to adapt because the higher the level you play, the less time you have and more decisions you have to make at the breakdown and not just stand off, waiting,” White said.
“I do think they did well, and we probably didn’t adapt as quickly as we could’ve.