Kurt-Lee Arendse congratulates Canan Moodie. (Photo by Gordon Arons/Gallo Images)
He Bulls have named a strong line-up for Saturday’s European Champion Clubs’ Cup match against exeter chiefs at Loftus Versfeld.
Lock Ruan Nortje will lead a strong pack along with fellow lock Ruan Vermaak.
Gerard Steenekamp, Johan Grobbelaar and Mornay Smith form a potent front row, while there is a loose Springbok trio: Nizaam Carr starts at the open side, Marco van Staden at the blind side and Elrigh Louw at number 8.
On the back line, Zak Burger and Chris Smith make up the running back combination, with David Kriel and Springbok Canan Moodie on the wings.
Harold Vorster and Wandisile Simelane are the midfielders, with another Bok, Kurt-Lee Arendse, at fullback.
The Bulls have gone with an experienced bench, with the likes of Bismarck Du Plessis, Dylan Smith, Johan Goosen, Lionel Mapoe and Embrose Papier all set to make an impact.
bulls team:
15 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 14 Canan Moodie, 13 Wandisile Simelane, 12 Harold Vorster, 11 David Kriel, 10 Chris Smith, 9 Zak Burger, 8 Elrigh Louw, 7 Nizaam Carr, 6 Marco van Staden, 5 Ruan Nortje (captain ), 4 Ruan Vermaak, 3 Mornay Smith, 2 Johan Grobbelaar, 1 Gerhard Steenekamp
Substitutes: 16 Dylan Smith, 17 Bismarck Du Plessis, 18 Francois Klopper, 19 Janko Swanepoel, 20 WJ Steenkamp, 21 Embrose Papier, 22 Johan Goosen, 23 Lionel Mapoe
Despite the possibility of booking a place in the round of 16, the coach of the Bulls forwards russell winter he insists that the match remains his focus, and not the permutations.
“We have to be up front on Saturday, stick to our systems, which will help us do well. We have to push ourselves and stay within what we’ve been trained to do and try to break them down the way they want to play.” this is how we are going to get the result.
“We are playing against one of the best clubs in a premium franchise competition, so the intensity will be higher and we are going to have to match it and improve our intensity if we want to achieve victory. We have to be prepared physically, mentally and in our game , they may find some cracks, but if we do what we train for, then we’ll be fine.
We know that they (Exeter) are a very good team, we know that they are well trained and we know that in the game we played against them (in Exeter on December 17) they really put on a great scrum and meow performance. We know their pack of forwards is a very good set of forwards, they really play and they play expansive rugby too if they want to.
“We have to prepare for all these things and on Saturday we are going to do our best and hopefully we have prepared well enough to win the game,” Winter concluded.
Exeter beat a second Bulls line-up 44-14 at Sandy Park in December.
The clash on Saturday begins at 19:30.
