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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Bulls won’t change plan against ‘dangerous’ Lions

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Cape Town – The Lions may not have beaten the Bulls since Jake White took charge at Loftus Versfeld, but that doesn’t mean the Pretoria side are expecting an easy win this weekend.

That was the consistent message from backline coach Chris Rossouw yesterday ahead of Saturday’s United Rugby Championship derby.

The Lions may have had their dirty laundry – on and off the field – exposed in public in recent weeks, but they proved that their collective heart is still beating at Ellis Park after dispatching the highly-rated Glasgow Warriors 35-24 last Saturday.

Ivan van Rooyen’s team scored five tries against the Scottish outfit, and despite their poor record against the Bulls and the rest of the South African teams, they do possess all the ingredients to cause another upset at Loftus.

The Bulls are searching for their own magic, having lost six out of their last eight matches across the URC and Champions Cup.

Most of those defeats have come away from home, but after enjoying a short break, they were primed to finally get one over John Dobson’s Stormers – only to go down 23-19 in a Loftus thriller on February 18.

Now they’ve had another week off to ponder and fine-tune their game, but need all that hard work to reflect on the scoreboard against the Lions.

“Obviously, the loss against the Stormers was a bitter pill to swallow,” Rossouw said.

“It was a great game, not only because of the crowd, but I thought that it was an exceptional battle on the field.

“It was just a pity, as I thought we had opportunities there to win the game. But hats off to the Stormers.

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“We need a win, we need some momentum, and I have to compliment the players.

“Yesterday and today, we had exceptionally good training. The spirit is high, and we all know how important this game is.

“The Lions have been under the pump for a long time, but they are an exceptional team and they showed it at the weekend.

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“They only have a poor run of form because they don’t get the results.

“We all know that they are a very good team, and can play very good rugby.

“We’ve seen that in the past, and what Cash (van Rooyen) said postmatch is that they have been like that for years – they don’t go away.

“They have developed this mentality over time where they don’t give up.

“Any team that play the Lions must know that they are going to have that attitude.

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“For us, it’s important to respect and understand that. We saw at the weekend against Glasgow that they are very dangerous.”

The Bulls had several chances to beat the Stormers in the closing stages, so finishing their scoring opportunities will definitely be at the top of their to-do list this week.

In that regard, they are missing Springbok speedsters Kurt-Lee Arendse and Canan Moodie – who are on a national team camp in Cape Town at the moment – but Rossouw is adamant that the rest of the backline can fire against the Lions.

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In the absence of Arendse and Moodie, another Bok, Sbu Nkosi, scored on his return to the game against the Stormers, and he could be a key figure against the Lions as well.

“We will stick to our processes,” Rossouw said.

“We obviously analyse teams, but we all know Kurt-Lee and Canan add a lot to the team. But I think the guys we have can play the same game.

“We will never get a like-for-like in terms of Kurt-Lee – he is one of a kind – but the players we have, do have the same ability …

“We know which areas we still need to nail, and we spoke about converting in the right areas at times – making sure we get points and are switched on when we make the transition from defence,” Rossouw concluded.

@AshfakMohamed

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