Crocked Bulls unlikely to do Lions much of a favour

The Lions might find relying on their neighbours the Bulls to do them a favour against the Jaguares at Loftus this weekend isn’t particularly realistic.

Following their somewhat unexpected loss to the Sharks last week, the men from Ellis Park now only have a three-point lead in the South African Super Rugby conference over the Argentinians.

To compound that headache, the Lions have a bye, meaning the Jaguares will in all likelihood overtake them after the match in Pretoria.

So their only hope to remain top is for the Bulls to win.

But the injury news coming out of their camp isn’t particularly promising.

Having already lost first-choice members of their pack such as Lizo Gqoboka (prop), Lood de Jager (lock) and Roelof Smit (flank) for the rest of the campaign, they still don’t have Springbok tighthead Trevor Nyakane available.

The Bulls are desperately thin up front and it’s had a telling effect in terms of not giving an exciting backline a quality platform to work from.

Speaking of the backs, regular skipper Burger Odendaal (centre) and Travis Ismaiel (wing) also won’t be seen on Saturday, robbing the Bulls of some vital experience.

It’s all been a pretty disappointing comedown for an emerging side that looked pretty promising earlier under John Mitchell.

“There are many injuries,” the Bulls coach said, adding that some players.

“There’s also one player who arrived overweight and did not meet our standards. In this manner, we won’t move forward in this competition.”