Vodacom Bulls director of rugby Jake White has taken some credit for flyhalf Manie Libbok’s electric form since leaving Pretoria to join the DHL Stormers.
White was speaking from Loftus Versfeld after a fifth successive Vodacom United Rugby Championship loss for the Bulls to the Stormers on Saturday, where Libbok scored 13 points that included a 73rd-minute drop goal to set up the visitors for victory.
He joined the Stormers in 2021 from the Bulls as the Capetonians looked to boost their depth at No 10, and backed as the first-choice pivot by coach John Dobson, the 25-year-old finished the inaugural URC as a title winner and the competition’s leading points scorer.
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Libbok, who has been linked with a move to French Top 14 club Racing 92, was also called up to the Springboks for the first time in 2022 and made his Test debut on the end-of-year tour.
“When I look at him I think, ‘jeez he’s playing well’. He wins a game and it’s almost like he loves playing against the Bulls,” White said post-match on Saturday.
“He’s played well against us every time and it’s almost like his way of showing me we should have kept him at the Bulls.
“But if I mention names like Rudolf Straeuli, Hannes Strydom, Gavin Johnson, Johan Roux… the list just goes on and on … Those guys all left the Northern Transvaal to the Lions under Kitch Christie and they all became World Cup winners.
“Sometimes that’s what happens; some players leave a franchise to go to another franchise and get a chance to play, and play well.
“So maybe Manie should thank me for releasing him because at least now he is playing well, and he wouldn’t have been playing for us because we had Morne Steyn, Chris Smith and Johan Goosen.”
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He added: “Sometimes you’ve got to make a call, and sometimes you get it right and sometimes you get it wrong, and sometimes a player needs a change of environment.
“I see many, many players go from here to another place and not play well, and I’ve seen guys come to us and play well.
“Not taking anything away from him [Libbok], he is playing really good rugby and whatever they’re doing with him at the Stormers is working. He seems to gel nicely with that backline, either with Warrick Gelant at 15 or Clayton Blommetjies at 15.
“That whole jigsaw puzzle is probably working for him, which is great for him.”
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