Why Sadie didn't make the Bulls' cut

Bloemfontein-bound Johann Sadie remains a valuable asset in the Blue Bulls Currie Cup campaign and will feature in the matchday squad soon.

This is the assurance of Bulls coach Johan Pienaar, who this week made just one change to his team for the trip to Bloemfontein on Friday and a Round Two encounter with the Free State Cheetahs.

Arno Botha, who started in the 35-20 win over Griquas last Friday, is out with a hamstring injury and CJ Stander will travel to Bloemfontein to start in the No.7 jersey.

It means Sadie, who will join the Cheetahs after the completion of the Currie Cup season, will not be in the matchday 22 this week.

Pienaar, himself a former Free State Under-21 coach, said the decision to leave Sadie out had nothing to do with his imminent departure from Pretoria.

"He only started training properly this week," Pienaar told this website, when asked about a player who has been out of action for almost two months following an ankle injury.

"Also, we had a short turn-around, because we are playing [the Cheetahs] on Friday," the Bulls coach said, adding: "We trained on Monday and Tuesday, the guys are day off on Wednesday and we travel to Bloemfontein on Thursday.

"He [Sadie] is coming back from a very lengthy injury lay-off and I would like to have him in conditioning for another week.

"He is very important to me in the Currie Cup competition. It would be silly to push him in, perhaps too soon, then he ends up aggravating an injury because we didn't give him that extra week."

Pienaar felt that with his resources somewhat depleted at present - between national call-ups and a few injuries - it was not worth risking another injury.

In fact he is very optimistic Sadie will feature in the matchday squad when they host the Sharks in Pretoria next week.

"I don't want to take risks and deplete our resources even further.  

"We do have talented young players - Ulrich Beyers had a good game and we also have Jan Serfontein [on the bench].

"Sadie is a class player and he will be in the running next week."

By Jan de Koning