No time to poke the opposition, as Bulls gear up for Stormers

Normally before the great north-south derby between the teams based in Pretoria and Cape Town, Bulls coach Jake White has enjoyed making a few mischievous digs at the opposition, like the harlequin in early pantomime, but he refused to take the bait this week and very much focused on his own team ahead of their United Rugby Championship match against the Stormers at 5.05pm in Pretoria on Saturday.

As White correctly pointed out, the Bulls, while so dominant in domestic rugby, have fared the worst of the South African franchises so far in the URC and are second from bottom. The Stormers are two points and two places above them in 13th.

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“This is a chance for us to get off the bottom of the table,” White said on Friday.

“It’s our second north-south derby this week, but our first home game in the URC. I don’t think many teams have played five away games.

“We have some momentum from the two Currie Cup wins, but it’s not just about preparing for Saturday. We’re building for three years’ time, so we are still a work in progress and we are still looking to fill certain positions.”

Because White has been willing to field many of his URC players in the first two rounds of the Currie Cup, his whole squad for Saturday have had game time and he is hoping they start well against a Stormers side that has been inactive since being hammered 37-19 by the Lions in Cape Town in early December.

It also means the likes of flyhalf Chris Smith, hooker Johan Grobbelaar, props Gerhard Steenekamp and Mornay Smith, and 19-year-old debutant flank Reinhardt Ludwig all have experienced and in-form cover on the bench.

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“We have a bit of experience that can come off the bench,” White acknowledged.

“We’re trying to balance the whole team and the players coming off the bench will help someone like Reinhardt.

“Playing at 5pm in 30 degrees and at altitude – and all our players have played recently – hopefully that will give us a head start. But the Stormers are just ahead of us on the table and they will back themselves.

“Obviously they’ll be disappointed with the Lions game. If you look at their backline, there are a lot of Sevens players, so they won’t be scared to play, but they’ll want space and time.”