Cape Town - While next weekend’s United Rugby Championship quarter-final at the same venue is a separate matter, Bulls coach Jake White believes his team can gain a lot of value out of Saturday night’s Currie Cup clash against Western Province at Cape Town Stadium (6.30pm kickoff).
White opted to pick a strong side on Friday filled with Springboks such as Kurt-Lee Arendse, Cornal Hendricks, Johan Goosen and Marco van Staden and mixed in with a number of promising youngsters.
In contrast, WP boss John Dobson selected a regular side that have done duty in most of the Currie Cup games, and rested his star Stormers players for next weekend’s playoff against the Bulls.
It is an intriguing battle of wits ahead of the big showdown next weekend, and it is worth a shot for White to do something different against a Stormers side that have been unbeaten against the Bulls in the URC.
“It’s like playing a practice round before the Masters (golf tournament). It’s the same pressure; it’s a must-win game Currie Cup-wise. It’s at a stadium where we haven’t won for a while, and we’ve got to use the practice round, and I can answer you afterwards if I got the right things out of it,” White said.
“We know we are up against it next week, and I also want to make sure that I am not worrying about next week, and that I am (rather) worrying about this week first.
“I can’t be influenced by what other coaches say or do, or what other unions are doing. We are focusing on what we have to do, and we’ve got a plan in terms of where we want to be.
“But it’s not in isolation – I would be wrong to say it’s only about tomorrow. It’s not often that you get to play at the same venue two weeks in a row. It doesn’t matter if the (Stormers) team changes… There are a lot of positives you can get out of travelling to the same place and staying in the same hotel.
“It’s a little bit like the Boks going to Japan early for the last World Cup, as they got to get a feel for it before the tournament.
“Everyone will know that it doesn’t matter what happens this week. There is no guarantee that if you win this week, you win next week, for any team. And there is no guarantee that if you lose this week, you will lose next week.”
While the Cape side’s Boks are putting their feet up tonight, it is quite a gamble by White to risk someone like Arendse in case of him getting injured.
He is the fulcrum of the Bulls attack, along with Canan Moodie, and he needs to be firing on all cylinders next weekend if the Stormers are to be defeated.
But the Bulls director of rugby also felt that continuing building on the momentum gained by the three big wins over Griquas, Zebre and an inexperienced Leinster is vital for the rest of the season.
“The one thing that I am positive about is that this team last year, when they played Wednesday-Saturday, Wednesday-Saturday, almost played the same kind of rugby that they are playing now,” White said.
“I’ve found that every time I’ve given them off, we’ve struggled in the game when they come back. I am just hoping that it will be a copy and paste of the way we ended last year – the style, the amount of tries we scored, the kind of cohesion we got…
“And if that happens, I am sure we will make it difficult for any team to beat us. It’s an opportunity to come to Cape Town, and next week, we are in exactly the same flight, same hotel, hopefully the same weather, the same everything…
“It gives us a chance to measure ourselves against a team that are expected to win.”
Teams For Cape Town Stadium
Western Province: 15 Clayton Blommetjies 14 Luke Burger 13 Cornel Smit 12 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu 11 Angelo Davids 10 Jean-Luc du Plessis (captain) 9 Godlen Masimla 8 Keke Morabe 7 Marcel Theunissen 6 Willie Engelbrecht 5 Connor Evans 4 Dylan de Leeuw 3 Lee-Marvin Mazibuko 2 Scarra Ntubeni 1 Ali Vermaak.
Bench: 16 André-Hugo Venter 17 Kwenzo Blose 18 Corné Weilbach 19 Gary Porter 20 Adré Smith 21 Junior Pokomela 22 Thomas Bursey 23 Damian Markus.
Blue Bulls: 15 Kurt-Lee Arendse 14 Wandisile Simelane 13 Stedman Gans 12 Cornal Hendricks 11 David Kriel 10 Johan Goosen 9 Keagan Johannes 8 WJ Steenkamp 7 Reinhardt Ludwig (captain) 6 Marco van Staden 5 Janko Swanepoel 4 Charlie Ewels 3 Francois Klopper 2 Jan-Hendrik Wessels 1 Gerhard Steenekamp.
Bench: 16 Johan Grobbelaar 17 Simphiwe Matanzima 18 Mornay Smith 19 Ruan Vermaak 20 Cyle Brink 21 Embrose Papier 22 Chris Smith 23 Harold Vorster.
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