Bulls will ‘fire shots’ at Lyon, says captain Coetzee

Bulls co-captain Marcell Coetzee says they will have their arsenal ready for their Champions Cup clash against Lyon on Saturday at the Stade Gerland.

The Pretoria-based side will travel to France for their second encounter of the European Championship.

The Bulls started their season with a 27-16 win over Saracens last weekend at Loftus Versfeld. The four points they got from the match put them in third place in a pool of six teams.

Going to war

Coetzee and his charges know getting a result in France against Lyon this weekend will put them in a good position to make it out of the pool and reach the knockout stages. With that at the back of their minds, the Bulls will fire shots at Lyon.

“We want to go overseas and fire some shots. We know what the results are if you do win away from home – it helps you in the long term when it comes to the playoffs and stuff,” Coetzee said.

“The motivation will be there. Our biggest challenge as the squad we are taking is to be accurate and try to achieve what we want to do.

“We will never underestimate our opponent, no matter how they look on the log. They are still a great squad.

“If you give them confidence they will fire away, and that’s what we don’t want to do on the day.”

It will be the second time the Bulls visit Lyon at the Stade Gerland in the Champions Cup. Last time around they were relegated to a 31-7 defeat after playing in front of a hostile crowd led by ultra-fans.

‘Mentally strong’

Going into Saturday’s game, Coetzee believes the players will be able to handle the curve balls that come with playing at the Stade Gerland because of last season’s experience, as well as their success in their recent United Rugby Championship overseas tour.

“A lot of the guys that went there last time are going back, so they know what to expect. They will go with a better mindset this time because they know what to expect with the crowd and the weather conditions,” Coetzee said.

“It’s part of the game, it’s part of the experience you want to give to the youngsters. You want to expose them to those environments because we are going to be playing in Europe for a while. If we want to get results and get to the playoffs we have to be mentally strong and put that aside.

“We have that in the team and we have proven it in our previous URC tour; two wins out of four games and in some matches, we could have snatched it.”