Springbok Marco van Staden is focused on helping the Vodacom Bulls secure a top-four finish in the Vodacom URC, and not on if he is selected for this year’s World Cup.
The openside flanker returned to the Bulls at the back-end of 2022 from career-threatening concussion problems, and his form put him in immediate Bok contention for the end-of-year tour.
Nicknamed ‘Eskom’ for his famed ability to tackle the ‘lights out’ of his opponents, the 27-year-old has made a strong case to fill the high impact role for the Boks similar to Francois Louw at the 2019 World Cup.
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Van Staden, though is taking things as it comes, and speaking this week in the buildup to a Jukskei derby between the Bulls and Lions in Pretoria on Saturday, he told media: “I feel like I’ve gotten back to where I should be.
“There’s still a lot of work to be done. I think there are still parts of my game that I can work on and improve some things.
“But I’m just glad and happy to be playing again. I’m enjoying rugby and I think if you enjoy the game, it makes you play well.
“And that’s my main goal, to enjoy every game and opportunity that I get. Whatever happens from there, I’m happy with.”
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The Bulls, sixth overall in the URC, relinquished a nine-point lead in a fifth successive loss to the DHL Stormers in the competition three weeks ago.
Van Staden believes he and his teammates have learnt from their defeat to the defending champions, and added: “The best thing we could have done after that Stormers game was to take from it what we can and use [going] forward, and to learn from the mistakes.
“We had a lot of opportunities that we missed, so we focused a lot on accuracy and finishing off. We get into the right places but it’s just simple mistakes where we give the ball back or [concede] a turnover.
“We have to start building momentum now towards the end of the season.”
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