Van Rensburg, Ulengo and Francois Venter were arguably the stand-outs of the Bok team that fought back in the last eight minutes to wipe out a 12 point deficit and hold the Barbarians to a 31-all draw in a thrilling though by no means flawless tour opener at Wembley on Saturday.
Coetzee said at the post-match press conference that he had been impressed with the young centre combination of Van Rensburg and Venter.
Both players scored tries in the late fightback, but it was the influence they had on the Bok attacking game, which was limited by the inability of the loose-trio to make an impact on the battle for loose ball dominance, that would have earned a tick of approval from Coetzee.
He said after the game that while he’d said ahead of the tour that he might find himself in the difficult position of having to say goodbye to players who’d made an impact in the Wembley game, he did have the option of keeping some players on to cover for players who were struggling with “niggles”.
No-one in the press conference room needed him to point out who those players were.
Only four of the newcomers to Bok rugby that got their first feel of the green and gold at senior level at the home of English soccer were slated to remain on after the tour opener.
While Sergeal Petersen, Venter, Roelof Smit and Jean-Luc du Preez were all named for the test match phase which incorporates clashes with England, Italy and Wales, Van Rensburg and Ulengo were to join Cheslin Kolbe, Tian Schoeman, Uzair Cassiem, RG Snyman and Lizo Gqoboka in flying back to South Africa on Sunday.
That they aren’t is because Jesse Kriel has been forced out of the tour because of injury and because two of the overseas based players who joined the squad on Sunday, Willie le Roux and JP Pietersen, are carrying niggles and are thus doubtful starters for Saturday’s big match of the tour against England at Twickenham.
Ruan Combrinck is also doubtful at this point.
