Excitement in the air as Bulls return home for Stormers URC derby

The Bulls are hopeful that a return to home comforts this weekend will boost their United Rugby Championship campaign when they clash with arch-rivals, the Stormers, on Saturday.

Last season’s runners-up have had mixed results in the URC and Champions Cup in recent times and have also had to deal with director of rugby Jake White being sidelined due to medical matters.

But, having enjoyed some time off, the Bulls are back in action at home at Loftus Versfeld this weekend in a match that doesn’t get much bigger than a north-south derby against last season’s champions.

Also, the Stormers have won four matches in a row against the Bulls.

‘Excited to be back’

“Everyone is excited to be back at Loftus this weekend,” said Bulls scrum coach Werner Kruger.
“We had one game here in January and one in December. Tickets are also selling well, and quickly, so everyone’s excited.”

By Tuesday evening 30,340 tickets had been sold for the big match. Bulls company president Willem Strauss tweeted, “Let’s push for 40,000!”

Kruger said the match would possibly again go the way of the side that dominates in the set-pieces and collisions.

‘Physical affairs’

“North-south derbies are always physical affairs, and we all know everything starts up front,” said Kruger, who played in a number of Bulls-Stormers derbies in his day.

“We know we have a tough task up front, because it doesn’t matter what personnel the Stormers employ their scrum always functions well.

“It’s going to be a big challenge for us, and it always comes down to fine margins in derbies like this.”
Indeed. In December when the teams clashed in Cape Town, the Bulls were very much in the contest at 13-alll at half-time, but three quick tries by the home side after the restart ended the Bulls’ challenge, White’s team going down 37-27.

“We had a lapse in concentration and it cost us,” said Kruger.

“We did a lot of things right in that game, but also slipped up in places … and it was always going to be a battle to come back after conceding those three tries.”

Structure

Asked how motivated the Bulls are to end their losing run against the Stormers on Saturday, Kruger said: “Naturally, you always want to win, but (ending a losing run) it’s not our focus.

“We’re looking at our game-plan and what we need to do to stay in structure to achieve what we want in the game. We can’t control what happened before, only what will happen this weekend on the field.”

With the game still three days away, it is not known whether the match will be played in dry conditions or whether the rain of recent days will fall in Pretoria. Kruger said it didn’t matter.

“You have to stick to your structures and not chase something different,” said Kruger. “We’ve prepared well and all we’re after is getting our system working on the day.”

Kick-off on Saturday is 5pm.