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Chiliboy Ralepelle of the Bulls.

Stand-in Bulls captain Chiliboy Ralepelle has called on his teammates to take responsibility for each other when the Bulls take on the Cheetahs in their Super rugby warm-up match in Polokwane on Saturday.

The eyes of Polokwane and the rest of the rugby fraternity in South Africa will focus on the Peter Mokaba Stadium especially on the way Ralepelle leads the Bulls but the Springbok hooker is not fazed at the attention his cameo appearance as Bulls captain will attract.

Instead, Ralepelle believes that his job on Saturday will be made easier by his teammates whom the hooker has labelled as captains in their own positions and that it will be up to the entire collective to ensure that the Bulls achieve their objectives.

Ralepelle, who has replaced regular captain Pierre Spies who is suffering from a calf injury, harbours no ill feeling after narrowly missing out on the Bulls captaincy to Spies.

“It is always an honour and a privilege to lead a quality side like the Bulls and it will be my responsibility to ensure that the team does what it meant to do.”

“It was never a disappointment (losing out on the captaincy). In life there are many things that one is not in control of. Pierre is a great captain and a good man. I believe any guy is capable of being the captain and if one looks at the calibre and quality of players we have in this Bulls team, everyone is a captain in their own right,” said Ralepelle yesterday.

As strange a venue Peter Mokaba Stadium is to the Cheetahs and to a certain extent the Bulls, for Ralepelle it is a fitting homecoming in the city he has called home for a long time.

But outside of all the pomp and ceremony of two Super rugby giants playing in top rugby deprived Polokwane and Ralepelle leading the Bulls, Ralepelle has thrown the gauntlet at his teammates to focus on the reason why they will be in Polokwane.

“It’s a different place to play but fortunately I have played there before and it where I come from. I look at it as my home turf and it is also great for the Bulls to take the game to the people. It is good for the players to get more exposure up north because that is where most of our loyal and passionate supporters come from. It is a great honour and a challenge for the team. The biggest thing for us will be to keep to our structure and not do anything different and implement what we have planned in the off season. It will also be important to get that win to build some moment in going forward,” Ralepelle said.

Judging by Ralepelle’s tough talk it seems as though the Bulls will not hold back against the Cheetahs and the three time Super rugby champions will use this final opportunity to fine tune their game ahead of their opening Super rugby clash against the Sharks on February 24.

“What more is there to hide? There is nothing much to hide. It is the work rate of the players that will be put to the test. We have worked very hard on the off season and now we are going to see all of those efforts being put to play and we must actually come through this weekend. Nothing much has changed from how we have done things in the past, maybe we have brushed up on one or two things but everything remains the same. We just have to execute the structure and be clinical,” said Ralepelle.

The Bulls have named their team to play against Cheetahs which has eleven Springboks in their starting line-up including Werner kruger and Flip van der Merwe who had been in doubt due to injury. – Pretoria News