Bulls face wealth of international talent at Bayonne

The Bulls would feel confident of a strong win against Aviron Bayonnais (Bayonne) in their knockout match this weekend if not for the French side’s abundance of international experience.

The teams clash in the Challenge Cup round of 16 at Bayonne’s home ground, Stade Jean-Dauger, on Saturday (kick-off 1.30pm).

Bayonne lie fourth in France’s  Top 14 with 12 wins from 20 games.

They also finished second out of six teams in their Challenge Cup pool, winning three of four games before progressing to the knockouts.

They beat Scarlets 17–16, Black Lion 41–16 and Gloucester 55–17. Their only loss came from a 52–12 drubbing by Edinburgh in Scotland.

Tuilagi and Carreras on the cards

Bayonne are a strong side. Although they have no current French internationals, they have in their ranks former France star Camille Lopez and a host of international talent.

These include former Springbok Uzair Cassiem; Manu Tuilagi of England; Argentinians Facundo Bosch, Lucas Paulos, Rodrigo Bruni and Mateo Carreras; Federico Mori of Italy; Reece Hodge of Australia; Luke Tagi and Sireli Maqala of Fiji; Veikoso Poloniati of Tonga; Tevita Tatafu of Japan; and Torsten van Jaarsveld of Namibia.

Also, tighthead prop Pieter Scholtz was born in South Africa and played for the Lions and Kings before venturing abroad.

It’s fitting that Jake White’s Bulls should take on such a cosmopolitan side after White argued that players should stick to playing in their home nations to increase depth at unions, possibly increase the number of unions in South Africa’s Currie Cup, and attract more sponsors.

“We mustn’t kill the goose that lays the golden egg,” he said last week.

“It’s irrelevant how much money there is. If you want to be a Springbok you must play in South Africa.”

Bulls will not stand back for Manu Tuilagi

Bulls fullback Devon Williams honed in on the calibre of Tuilagi especially.

The strong and tall centre was a regular in England’s line-up last season. But injury and poor form saw him left out of the Six Nations, though he is playing well at Bayonne of late.

“I think week in and week out, we get different kinds of bruisers in the backline, but Manu Tuilagi is a big name,” Williams said.

“I guess we will have a plan for him, but they are playing against the Bulls, so I don’t think we are going to stand back for anyone.”