Bulls eager to get back to winning ways in ‘massive’ URC battle

The Bulls are targeting a big performance in their United Rugby Championship (URC) derby against the Sharks at Kings Park in Durban on Saturday, to end their year on the right note.

It has been a solid start to the URC season for the Bulls, having won five out of six games to sit third on the log, but the Sharks are hot on their heels in sixth place and they know that a loss would see their coastal rivals close the gap.

The hosts are also expected to name their strongest possible side, with all their available Springboks in action, which will add to the occasion as the Bulls will unleash all of their Bok stars as well.

“South Africa derbies are always a massive occasion and there is always a lot of pressure on them. The guys know what has to be done and for ourselves we need to put in a good performance this weekend before we go into our break,” explained loose forward Elrigh Louw.

“We obviously want to win. We want to bounce back from last weekend (loss against Northampton Saints) and we want to have a good performance for ourselves as a team and as a union.”

Disappointing results

The Bulls head into the match off the back of two straight defeats in the Champions Cup competition, away against Saracens and at home against Saints last week, so they will be eager to get back to winning ways.

They were particularly disappointed with their showing against Saints, as they backed themselves to get a win at Loftus to get their competition back on track, but instead fell to a poor defeat.

“We have to take games like last weekend against Saints as learning blocks. You only learn if you improve, so I think we learnt a lot and we will see this weekend if we took something out of that loss and learnt something from it,” admitted Louw.

“I don’t think we were switched on over the full 80 minutes. Often it is just one or two minutes in a match that determines the outcome and a lot of it is based on a split-second decision. So that is something we need to improve on, as well as our penalty count.”

Running game predicted

Against the Sharks Louw is expecting an open running game from the coastal side, and that is something for which they have prepared themselves.

“They are a very skilful and talented side. They love it when a game gets loose, so we are expecting them to be going for a lot of turnovers,” said Louw.

“We can expect them to kick a lot, a lot of contestable kicks off nine, and then obviously their set piece is very dominant with the players they have.”