Unchanged Bulls team will take on Jaguares at Loftus
Although the Bulls can no longer reach the play-off stage of the Super Rugby tournament, their match against the Jaguares this Saturday at Loftus Versfeld is important in more ways than one.
The Blue Bulls Rugby Union will have their official celebrations on Saturday at Loftus Versfeld to commemorate their 80th birthday.
Several Blue Bulls legends will be among the approximately 200 former players who will attend the match and the young Bulls players will definitely want to end their home matches in this year’s tournament on a high note in the presence of these legends.
The Bulls can also do the Lions and the Sharks a favour by beating Jaguares.
The South Americans are currently only three points behind the Lions on the log and the Bulls can relieve a lot of pressure from their neighbours across the Jukskei River with a victory. The Sharks also have a chance to catch up with the Jaguares in order to qualify for the play-offs matches. The men from Durban will play against the Jaguares in their last league match next week and therefore the Bulls can help them too if they manage to beat the Argentineans.
Bulls coach, John Mitchell named an unchanged run-on team to face the Jaguares at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday in what will be the last home match for his team in this year’s Super Rugby competition.
The same starting side that lost to a late score against the Sunwolves in Singapore last weekend will thus get a chance to redeem themselves.
Mitchell made some changes to the bench though, with the most prominent the inclusion of Springbok scrumhalf, Ivan van Zyl, in place of Andre Warner.
“We are determined to close out the season at home with a solid performance. We have grown as a team and our supporters started believing again, and we would like to reward that trust in us. In the end, the season did not quite finish the way we wanted, but I am happy that we took some important steps in the right direction. We will reap the benefits of that in future,” Mitchell said.
The team will again be captained by Handré Pollard.
“We only need to look at the log to see how tough the Jaguares will be. They are playing some exceptional rugby at the moment. That said, they are coming into our backyard and we need to show who is boss in our house. We owe the Loftus faithful a good show,” the captain concluded.
The team is: 15. Warrick Gelant, 14. Jamba Ulengo, 13. Jesse Kriel, 12. Johnny Kotze, 11. Divan Rossouw, 10. Handré Pollard (c), 9. Embrose Papier, 8. Hanro Liebenberg, 7. Jannes Kirsten, 6. Marco van Staden, 5. RG Snyman, 4. Jason Jenkins, 3. Conraad van Vuuren, 2. Jaco Visagie and 1. Pierre Schoeman. Replacements: 16. Edgar Marutlulle, 17. Simphiwe Matanzima/Matthys Basson, 18. Mornay Smit, 19. Thembelani Bholi, 20. Nick de Jager, 21. Ivan van Zyl, 22. Manie Libbok and 23. Dries Swanepoel.
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