Cape Town - The biggest challenge facing the Bulls in Saturday’s United Rugby Championship clash against the Lions at Loftus Versfeld (3pm kickoff) may not be the opposition, but rather themselves.
Having romped to a comfortable 34-10 victory against the same opponents at Ellis Park last weekend, it would be understandable if the Bulls think that it would be another easy ride in Pretoria on Saturday.
They seemed to regain their physical prowess and their touch on attack in Johannesburg, and coach Jake White has kept faith with most of the starting XV when he named his team yesterday, with the only change being Zak Burger coming in at scrumhalf in place of Embrose Papier.
White feels that Burger needs some game time after Papier had a number of starts, while the Springbok halfback is expected to make a significant impact off the bench too.
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“They’re a bit different in that Zak probably gets to the breakdowns a bit quicker, and gets the ball away quicker. Emmie is obviously very quick, and with ball-in-hand, he likes to snipe,” the former Bok coach said yesterday.
“Again, it will be quite interesting to see what he does off the bench, when players are a little bit more fatigued – maybe it’s an opportunity to find a couple of holes at the back-end of the game.”
Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen picked a new-look backline, where goal-kicking ace Tiaan Swanepoel will run the show at flyhalf, while Ruhan Straeuli replaces the injured Willem Alberts at lock.
Swanepoel’s booming boot has the ability to slot kicks from inside his own half, so the Bulls must be wary of conceding too many penalties. “I think it’s impressive – hopefully we don’t give him penalty opportunities in his own half,” White said about the threat that Swanepoel poses.
“There are some good players there, and when you make a lot of changes … it almost looks like I’m back in France, because not many South African teams make eight or nine changes to a team – it looks like a French thing.”
It’s going to take more than just words for the Lions to bounce back
But while the Bulls are clear favourites, they will hope to avoid an unwanted third successive loss at Loftus Versfeld, after going down to the Stormers two weeks ago, and then to the Cheetahs in the Currie Cup on Wednesday.
It would be a mighty upset if the Lions triumph this afternoon, but stranger things have happened.
“There is internal pressure, because of our standards. But there’s no pressure from outside,” White said.
“One of the nice things about rugby is that it’s fun, and you’ve got to enjoy it. Pressure is when you’re a bomb detonator, and you’re not sure whether you must cut the red cord or the black cord. That’s pressure.”
Bulls team: 15 Divan Rossouw 14 Stean Pienaar 13 Manuel Rass 12 Matt More
11 Edwill van der Merwe 10 Tiaan Swanepoel 9 André Warner 8 Francke Horn 7 Emmanuel Tshituka 6 Jaco Kriel (captain) 5 Ruben Schoeman 4 Ruhan Straeuli 3 Carlu Sadie 2 PJ Botha 1 Sti Sithole.
Bench: 16 Morné Brandon 17 Morgan Naudé 18 Ruan Dreyer 19 Ruan Venter 20 PJ Steenkamp 21 Morné van den Berg 22 EW Viljoen 23 Quan Horn.