Cape Town – There are positives and negatives to facing the Stormers in the quarter-final of the United Rugby Championship (URC) for the Bulls.
In a repeat of last season’s final, the North-South derby will play itself out in the final eight of the competition with only one of the finalists making it to the
Jake White, Bulls coach, said they will be able to leave one day before their match to Cape Town, without having the burden of travelling a week before a game to Ireland or Scotland where they will have to adapt.
“Another positive is that last year, the Stormers were champions and we get to play against the champions,” White said.
“The other positives are we know what to expect. We’ve played the Stomrers so many times as well. So it’s not a case of who you’d like to play. We are just happy that we made the playoffs.
“We didn’t afford ourselves the luxury during the year to get a home semi or quarter-final. We didn’t afford ourselves the luxury that Leinster did at the backend of the competition to play different teams because they won the log.”
White, though, is happy that his team has been on a winning run of late and that they’ve won so well too.
He says they got their game to a level where they want to play at.
This past weekend they thrashed Leinster, claiming a 62-7 victory, to grab the sixth place on the overall URC log.
“The style we are using is one that can beat any team that we play against.”
In the Stormers’ camp, they are still sweating over the fitness and availability of locks Ruben van Heerden and Ernst van Rhyn who both injured their knees against Benetton last week Friday.
Both looked discomforted as they left the field and the fears are that both of them can miss the important quarter-final against the Bulls.
The Stormers’ management is awaiting the results of their scans to find out what the extent of the injuries is.
The Stormers only had a light training session on Monday and will turn the intensity up a notch when they have a final session on Wednesday before giving their players a long weekend.
Both Van Heerden and Van Rhyn were on crutches in Stellenbosch but they were present at the Stormers’ high-performance centre on Monday
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