Bullish Gqoboka relishes scrum battle with Jaguares
It's not the Argentinians' biggest strength anymore, but a rampant Bulls front row want to hit them where it might hurt badly.
Lizo Gqoboka is back in the Bulls team for the match against the Lions on Wednesday. Picture: Gallo Images.
Argentine scrums don’t seem to be the powerhouses of the past, but Bulls prop Lizo Gqoboka still believes their biggest challenge at
Loftus Versfeld on Saturday will come from the Jaguares pack.
The Bulls gained their first log point last weekend in their narrow defeat to the Blues in Pretoria, but are languishing second-from bottom in the Super Rugby standings, while the Jaguares slipped to a 50% losing record when they came unstuck against the Stormers in Cape Town.
“The Jaguares are tough upfront and it’s definitely going to be our most physical game this season. So we have to be up for it, we’re coming up against very experienced international players, guys who were at the World Cup last year. But we believe we can put them under pressure, we did last year and with the same front row starting for us we know we can do it again, even though we know they have improved too,” Gqoboka said at Loftus Versfeld.
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The Bulls have started their 2020 campaign with three successive losses, but coach Pote Human is unlikely to ring the changes because he also has three injury concerns to deal with when choosing his side to take on the Jaguares.
Captain and inside centre Burger Odendaal has a bruised tendon in his lower leg and is unlikely to play, fullback Warrick Gelant took a bad bump to the hip and eighthman Josh Strauss has injured his ankle.
Despite this troubled start to the season, spirits are still high in the Bulls camp and Gqoboka said they simply have to become an even tighter-knit unit and ignore the noise coming from outside the squad.
“It’s a tough one, but we need to look at ourselves. Our discipline has not been good at all, giving away 11 penalties against the Blues, that makes it tough to win any Super Rugby game. Our discipline needs to get better and we need to have fewer turnovers.
“So the focus is on pulling together even tighter. We still have the belief that we can turn it around because we can see what has cost us, it’s not that we’re a bad side and it’s not as if we’re not playing any rugby. We have had a lot of players leaving, but that is not an excuse,” Gqoboka said.
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