After a week of controversy, in which the Bulls’ director of rugby, Jake White, came down on SA Rugby over their red tape with South African teams’ travel arrangements for their difficult schedule in two European competitions, White decided to leave most of his biggest stars behind in Pretoria when he selected his team for the European Champions Cup quarter-final on Saturday against Northampton Saints in England’s East Midlands.

The fact that White has decided to take on the leaders in the English Premier League competition with his so-called “B-team” in this important game is a confirmation that the Bulls would rather focus on trying to win the United Rugby Championship (URC) and that the European Champions Cup is, due to various reasons, not their top priority at this stage.

It is common knowledge that South African teams cannot currently host semi-finals or the final of the European Champions Cup tournament. This has to do with the fact that SA Rugby are not yet full shareholders in the competition, but temporarily participate as guests due to their involvement with the URC.

For this reason, the Bulls had to choose in advance a stadium that they would adopt as their provisional “home ground” if they were to finish among the top four teams in the tournament. They chose the Ashton Gate stadium in Bristol (England), which means that if White’s “B-team” surprises and beats the Northampton Saints on Saturday, they could possibly play in this stadium in the semi-final.

On the other hand, the Bulls have a good chance of playing at home in the URC until at least the semi-final, not needing to travel to Europe again. They are currently third on the log of this tournament, but in terms of qualifying for a home semi-final their fate is still in their own hands as they have yet to play second-placed Glasgow Warriors.

Fortunately for the men from Pretoria, four of their five remaining league fixtures in the URC are home games, while one is in South Africa against the Sharks in Durban. White’s men still must play Munster at home (April 20), Ospreys at home (April 27), Glasgow Warriors at home (May 11), Benetton at home (May 18) and the Sharks in Durban (June 1).

Meanwhile, it became known that the former Bulls centre and captain, Burger Odendaal, will not be able to play against his old teammates on Saturday due to a hamstring injury. He has been playing for the English club since the beginning of this season. Odendaal, who turns 31 on Monday, was previously with another English club, Wasps, but his stay in Buckinghamshire was cut short after Wasps had to withdraw from the Premier League due to financial problems and after a short spell with Toshiba Brave Lupus in Japan, he moved to Northampton.

However, the former WP loose forward, Juarno Augustus, will start at number eight for the men of Northampton.

BULLS TEAM vs NORTHAMPTON: Devon Williams; Sebastian de Klerk, Henry Immelman, Harold Vorster, Stravino Jacobs; Chris Smith, Zak Burger; Simphiwe Matanzima, Akker van der Merwe, Mornay Smith; Janko Swanepoel, JF van Heerden; Nizaam Carr (c), Mpilo Gumede, Cameron Hanekom. Replacements: Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Dylan Smith, Francois Klopper, Merwe Olivier, Reinhardt Ludwig, Keagan Johannes, Jaco van der Walt, Cornal Hendricks.

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