Africa-Press – South-Africa. Bulls boss Jake White says Friday’s United Rugby Championship (URC) clash against the Stormers is not about revenge.
The sides clash at DHL Stadium for the first time since 18 June 2022 – the 2021/22 URC final – when the Stormers turned it on in the second half to emerge as 18-13 winners and inaugural champions.
That was the Stormers’ third win in a row against their northern neighbours – a fact White was quick to point to at his pre-match press conference on Thursday – but he insists that Friday’s outing is “another opportunity” for his charges.
White says the final, in isolation, was not analysed heading into this encounter.
Indeed, over the last three years, White has clashed with John Dobson’s Stormers numerous times and in several competitions, with White actually on the right side of that individual rivalry.
“We’ve lost the last three times we’ve played against the Stormers, but since I’ve been at the Bulls we’ve probably played them 12 times and won about eight of them. It depends which side of the fence you want to look at,” he said.
“We didn’t look at the final in isolation. We know what the Stormers do. They’ve got World Cup winners in their group and nine or 10 Springboks. They have a style that suits them with a strong pack of forwards that scrums for penalties and then kicks into the corner and mauls for tries. That hasn’t changed for a long time, so it’s not just the final.
“Over the last two or three years we’ve known what they’ve got, so it’s not just about the final. We know what we need to do and we know what we’ve done to get success against them.
“When you’ve been coaching for 40 years, you don’t get up in the morning and think about revenge results.”
White also pointed to the Stormers’ team selection – Dobson had opted for six forwards on his bench as opposed to the more traditional five – saying it was a compliment to his young Bulls pack.
“They’ve got six forwards on the bench, which I think is a great advert for Bulls rugby,” he said.
“It reminds me of the old powerhouse WP v Northern Transvaal games when they saw the Northern Transvaal pack of forwards as a strength, and it’s a great compliment to us as a group that those sorts of images and fears are rethought about. It’s something we pride ourselves on and it’s part of our DNA.
“The tight five of the Stormers are, man for man, about two years older than every guy in our team.
“We’re still where we are. We’re still developing and evolving as a team. I would like to believe we’ve got better and we’ll put up a better performance because of the experiences we’ve had in the last two years, but Dobson has been with them for a long, long time now and he has put together a group of players he has coached almost from UCT days.
“They are the most experienced South African coaching staff in this competition, and we are still relatively young.
“I think they’re still favourites.”
Kick-off is at 19:15.
Teams:
Stormers
15 Damian Willemse, 14 Angelo Davids, 13 Suleiman Hartzenberg, 12 Dan du Plessis, 11 Leolin Zas, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Paul de Wet, 8 Hacjivah Dayimani, 7 Willie Engelbrecht, 6 Deon Fourie, 5 Marvin Orie, 4 Ben-Jason Dixon, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Joseph Dweba, 1 Steven Kitshoff (captain).
Substitutes: 16 JJ Kotze, 17 Ali Vermaak, 18 Neethling Fouche, 19 Connor Evans, 20 Junior Pokomela, 21 Marcel Theunissen, 22 Godlen Masimla, 23 Clayton Blommetjies.
Bulls
15 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 14 Cornal Hendricks, 13 Lionel Mapoe, 12 Harold Vorster, 11 Canan Moodie, 10 Johan Goosen, 9 Embrose Papier, 8 Elrigh Louw, 7 Cyle Brink, 6 Marco van Staden, 5 Ruan Nortje (captain), 4 Ruan Vermaak, 3 Mornay Smith, 2 Johan Grobbelaar, 1 Gerhard Steenekamp
Substitutes: 16 Bismarck Du Plessis, 17 Simphiwe Matanzima, 18 Sebastian Lombard, 19 Janko Swanepoel, 20 Nizaam Carr, 21 Zak Burger, 22 Chris Smith, 23 Stravino Jacobs
For More News And Analysis About South-Africa Follow Africa-Press
