Ken Borland

It was the four successive defeats that the Bulls suffered against the Stormers and Western Province last year that were one of the major reasons for the change in approach of the Loftus Versfeld side and the Bulls will get an early indication of how well they have reinvented themselves when they take on the Cape side on Saturday in their Vodacom SuperRugby opener in Pretoria.

The pattern of those four defeats was similar: the Bulls forwards would dominate, they would bash away against the solid Stormers/WP defence or the ball would be kicked into the opposition 22, only for the ball to be lost and Allister Coetzee’s men would roar away for a turnover try.

Bulls captain Victor Matfield said the focus during their preparations was on raising the intensity and pace of their play, making try-scoring the goal after Bulls coach Frans Ludeke has previously admitted getting penalties was the desired outcome. The Stormers almost bring Sevens skills to their attacking play and the Bulls want to follow suit.

“We’ve put in a huge effort in the pre-season and the big difference has been in our conditioning because we have to reload quicker in defence and organise our attack. We want to go out and score tries because that’s almost always how you win and most times, the team that scores the most tries wins the competition,” Matfield said.

The veteran lock acknowledged that their opponents on Saturday have given them a torrid time recently on the counter-attack, but he hoped the tables would be turned on Saturday.

“They usually have a very quick back three and Juan de Jongh is a good stepper, so they’re dangerous off turnover ball. We mustn’t give them any of that, but we hope to turn over some free ball ourselves, because that’s where the tries lie,” Matfield said.

Publicly, Coetzee has acknowledged that his inexperienced team are the underdogs at Loftus Versfeld, but there is enough class and firepower in the Stormers side for the Bulls to be wary.

They won’t lack for inspiration with Duane Vermeulen leading from the front at eighthman, a comforting presence for the five players getting their first taste of SuperRugby – wings Johnny Kotze and Dillyn Leyds, replacement back Huw Jones and front-rowers Vincent Koch and Wilco Louw.

The scrums will be the main area of concern for the Bulls on Saturday, as Ludeke admitted.

“The scrums on Saturday are going to be a test, but the game against Saracens was a blessing in disguise because it alerted us to where we need to improve. It will be a huge battle because the scrums give you field position from penalties. We get rhythm and confidence from the scrum, but every one is a new contest,” Ludeke said.

The words “field position” are a hint that the Bulls are perhaps not quite ready to go all the way down the same road as the Stormers and the danger of being caught in between game-plans certainly exists for the home side.

Teams

Bulls: 15-Jurgen Visser, 14-Bjorn Basson, 13-JJ Engelbrecht, 12-Jan Serfontein, 11-Francois Hougaard, 10-Handre Pollard, 9-Piet van Zyl, 8-Arno Botha, 7-Lappies Labuschagne, 6-Deon Stegmann, 5-Victor Matfield, 4-Jacques du Plessis, 3-Werner Kruger, 2-Adriaan Strauss, 1-Trevor Nyakane. Reserves – 16-Callie Visagie, 17-Morne Mellet, 18-Grant Hattingh, 19-Pierre Spies, 20-Rudy Paige, 21-Jacques-Louis Potgieter, 22-Jesse Kriel, 23-Dayan van der Westhuizen/Neethling Fouche.

Stormers: 15-Cheslin Kolbe, 14-Johnny Kotze, 13-Juan de Jongh, 12-Damian de Allende, 11-Dillyn Leyds, 10-Demetri Catrakilis, 9-Nic Groom, 8-Duane Vermeulen, 7-Michael Rhodes, 6-Rynhardt Elstadt, 5-Ruan Botha, 4-Jean Kleyn, 3-Vincent Koch, 2-Scarra Ntubeni, 1-Steven Kitshoff. Reserves – 16-Bongi Mbonambi, 17-Oli Kebble, 18-Wilco Louw, 19-Jurie van Vuuren, 20-Nizaam Carr, 21-Louis Schreuder, 22-Kurt Coleman, 23-Huw Jones.

Pierre Spies, who was named as the captain for the season, will start the Vodacom Bulls’ SuperRugby campaign on the bench but someone with even more experience will be leading the team as they take on the Stormers in a crunch opener at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.

Victor Matfield, starting in his beloved number five jersey, will captain the Bulls for a competition-record 83^rd time, while also extending his appearance record for the franchise to 139, as he starts a 16^th season of SuperRugby.

Bulls coach Frans Ludeke said on Wednesday that the decision had been made to ease Spies back into action off the bench, with Arno Botha starting at eighthman, after both Springbok loose forwards were asked how they preferred to manage their comebacks from lengthy injury problems.

“We want the best way for them to come back so we asked them how they felt and we believe the best option is for Pierre to be eased back into action and make a huge impact this weekend in the second half. Starting with Arno is horses-for-courses in a way, there’s no specific reason but Pierre has been out for a while and Arno had no issues in the warm-up games. We believe another week coming off the bench will be the perfect start to the season for Pierre and we’ll take it week-by-week after that,” Ludeke said at the team announcement at Loftus Versveld on Wednesday.

Matfield, who is a strong contender to captain the Springboks at the World Cup if Jean de Villiers does not recover from knee surgery, said for him the appointment was only a temporary one.

“I’m just a stand-in and hopefully Pierre will be ready next week. There’s also Adriaan Strauss who can lead the side, but it’s his first game for the Bulls since 2006, maybe that’s why the coach didn’t pick him, Deon Stegmann did an outstanding job in the warm-ups and in the backs there’s Handre Pollard,” Matfield said.

Hooker Strauss, who played eight games for the Bulls as an U21 star, will start together with fellow Cheetahs imports Trevor Nyakane and Lappies Labuschagne, while the other interesting selections see Piet van Zyl starting at scrumhalf and Francois Hougaard on the left wing. With Pollard as the starting flyhalf there are high hopes the Bulls will sparkle on attack.

“Akona Ndungane and Travis Ismaiel are both not fit and Francois played really well against Saracens on the wing, you can see he enjoys playing there, so that contributed to the decision at scrumhalf. But Piet played especially well in the warm-ups, he makes an impact on front-foot ball and his decision-making was sharp, while Rudy Paige [on the bench] has a good kicking game and game-management skills,” Ludeke explained.

Jacques du Plessis, who will no longer be calling Loftus Versfeld home after this SuperRugby season and is another player who impressed in pre-season, will partner Matfield in the second row, while Jan Serfontein and JJ Engelbrecht will be the centres in a combination that has worked very well before.

Perhaps the most crucial selection, however, is that of the experienced Werner Kruger at tighthead prop and he will have plenty of work to do in giving the Bulls a stable foundation at scrum time.

Bulls team: 15-Jurgen Visser, 14-Bjorn Basson, 13-JJ Engelbrecht, 12-Jan Serfontein, 11-Francois Hougaard, 10-Handre Pollard, 9-Piet van Zyl, 8-Arno Botha, 7-Lappies Labuschagne, 6-Deon Stegmann, 5-Victor Matfield, 4-Jacques du Plessis, 3-Werner Kruger, 2-Adriaan Strauss, 1-Trevor Nyakane. Reserves – 16-Callie Visagie, 17-Morne Mellet, 18-Grant Hattingh, 19-Pierre Spies, 20-Rudy Paige, 21-Jacques-Louis Potgieter, 22-Jesse Kriel, 23-Dayan van der Westhuizen/Neethling Fouche.

Vodacom Blue Bulls captain Deon Stegmann said his team is starting to believe they can still be strong contenders for the Absa Currie Cup trophy after they warmed up for the semi-finals with a 46-12 victory over GWK Griquas at Loftus Versfeld at the weekend.

The Bulls finished the round-robin phase of the competition in fourth place and will therefore have to travel down to Cape Town to take on table-topping Western Province in their semi-final next Saturday. The Bulls won just six of their 10 regular-season games, but three of those have been in the last three weeks and there is a definite sense of late momentum building at Loftus Versfeld after a poor start to the campaign.

“All the criticism has pulled the guys together and we are really starting to believe,” Stegmann said after the victory over Griquas. “We’ve become a band of brothers, we have each other’s backs, and it’s a good feeling to have everything come together now at the end of the competition.”

The Bulls suffered a blow at the weekend with hard-hitting inside centre Burger Odendaal, probably their find of the season, suffering a suspected broken arm. It might just work in their favour, however, with Handre Pollard possibly moving into the number 12 jersey and the Bulls fielding two tactical kickers in him and flyhalf Jacques-Louis Potgieter in what will surely be a tense, tight knockout game against Western Province.

“Unfortunately, Burger’s injury looks serious, maybe a broken arm. He’s made huge steps this year, he’s a real threat on the gain-line and he gives the forwards a lot of momentum. He’s also very creative, it’s what you need in midfield,” coach Frans Ludeke said before confirming that either Pollard or regular fullback Ulrich Beyers, who moved to inside centre during the game, will take Odendaal’s place for the semi-final because Dries Swanepoel is injured.

With wing Bjorn Basson returning to form with a sparkling all-round display against Griquas that included scoring a hat-trick, Western Province should be warned that the Bulls have some dangerous weapons for knockout rugby.

Basson is the best player in the air in South Africa and with both Pollard and Potgieter possibly playing, there is the threat of an aerial bombardment for the hosts to deal with, and their record in the past in that facet of play is not all that flash.

Pollard is also a tremendous threat with ball in hand, as he showed again in the final quarter against Griquas, while the Bulls pack is in great form at the set-pieces and is always difficult to stop once their fearsome ball-carriers get on the front foot.

“That we were able to come back from a backs-to-the-wall situation this season reflects well on the leadership. This was our final run before the playoffs and we created a lot of opportunities, even though there were lots of mistakes, but that’s just eagerness by the players. As we’ve seen, if we just stay patient, the results will come.

“I was impressed with Deon and how he mixed things up on attack, we were able to keep Griquas guessing on the gain-line and we got good momentum there. That last try, when Pollard chipped over the top, was something different and that’s exactly what you need.

“Plus Bjorn had a great game, he showed how dangerous he is in broken field. He’s experienced, he’s a Test player so he’ll be used to the pressure at Newlands, and he creates opportunities,” Ludeke said.