Pienaar returns to bonus territory

FOR RUAN Pienaar, it was quite a return to the Ulster fold. Afforded little or no respite after Ulster’s run to last season’s Heineken Cup final, he has been with the Springboks for the duration of the Rugby Championship, only returning to Belfast on Monday, trained on Tuesday and re-appeared off the bench against Castres at Ravenhill last Friday to nonchalantly run in Ulster’s bonus point try with the game’s last play.

The way Pienaar looped around Luke Marshall before dummying, sidestepping and gliding between the Castres big-name replacements, Joe Tekori and Tony Classeen, sent the home crowd into raptures. Castres had indeed been Pienaar-ed and, for Pienaar, it was good to be back.

“It’s probably not the biggest ground in the world but they make as much noise as an 80,000-seat stadium,” said Pienaar, who the previous week had played in front of 88,739 at the FNB Stadium in Soweto. “It’s a great place to play and a great atmosphere, especially for Heineken Cup games. For me it was exciting to get back to Ravenhill.”

The Springboks finished third in the Rugby Championship under the new coaching ticket headed by Heyneke Mayer, albeit only behind Australia on points’ difference, after a 32-16 defeat at home to the All Blacks last Saturday.

Pienaar concedes that the All Blacks are an exceptional side, experienced individually and collectively. “You can’t escape the fact that they are a very good side. They thoroughly deserved to win the championship and they’re going to be tough to beat in the future. But we came close in Dunedin, so I think it’s about believing that you can actually do it and building that pressure on them, but they are a fantastic side.”

Most of the Boks squad returned to Currie Cup action last week, and will carry on playing until their end-of-year tour to Ireland, Scotland and England kicks off in the Aviva Stadium on November 10th. “It’s the end of a long hard season but I think the guys are really excited about coming over here to play three strong and proud nations. The guys truly believe we’re on the right track. We’ve taken a lot of flak in the press back home but within our squad there’s a belief that we’re on the right track and improving with each game.”

He expects most everybody to be available, including himself, although concedes he’s now been playing for “two years non-stop”, adding: “I’ll speak to David Humphreys after these two weeks to see if I can get a week or two off. My attitude is if you are injury free why not play, but obviously you’ve got to look after yourself and get some rest, so hopefully in the next few months I’ll get a good couple of weeks to get away from rugby with the family. But I’m glad to be back here with Ulster and I want to contribute to the cause.”

Pienaar didn’t expect to be away so often with the Springboks, but had a clause written into his contract ensuring his international release just in case. “Honestly at that stage I thought my international career was over, like everyone else based overseas, but thankfully Pieter de Villiers and Heyneke Meyer have used me, and it’s still a great privilege and honour to play with them.”

Much had changed within Ulster too in the months Pienaar had been away, most obviously the tragic events which befell the Spence family, the arrival of new head coach Mark Anscombe and the arrival/emergence of new players.

“When I got the news I couldn’t believe it, and you find yourself thinking about him a couple of times every day, and especially now around the team and in the changing room, because he was such a lovely guy; a joker around the team. He definitely left a hole in the team but in a way he’s probably brought everyone closer, not just the squad but the whole community in Belfast. It is really sad, but no one will forget him, as a legend and a great friend.”

Pienaar himself played down any personal satisfaction in his try in deference to the greater good of Ulster securing a prized bonus point, but you’d hardly tell in any event from his expression or demeanour – which hardly ever changes. Is he really as even-tempered as he looks from the outside?

“I like to be as relaxed as possible,” he says, laughing. “Obviously you get your nerves and they don’t show but I try to be as relaxed as possible when playing. That’s the best way for me to be able to perform well. But you do get stressed now and then; I just don’t think anyone sees that.”

He does admit that despite playing plenty of his rugby at outhalf (not to mention fullback and wing for his country) scrumhalf is his preferred position. “I’m really enjoying my time at nine,” he says. “I’ve played there since I was in school and I feel more comfortable there.”

Anscombe’s influence, according to Pienaar, has already been evident in “a lot of discipline and emphasis on small detail” and the Ulster coach rates the chances of Stephen Ferris and Nick Williams playing against Glasgow this Friday as 60-40 after adding both of them to the 23 who were on duty last week, along with Nigel Brady and Niall O’Connor.

ULSTER SQUAD(v Glasgow): R Best, R Herring, N Brady, C Black, J Afoa, T Court, A Macklin, N McComb, D Tuohy, L Stevenson, J Muller, I Henderson, S Ferris, M McComish, C Henry, N Williams; P Marshall, R Pienaar, N O'Connor, P Jackson, L Marshall, P Wallace, D Cave, C Gilroy, A Trimble, T Bowe, J Payne.