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Bulls gearing up for ‘Test’ match against URC log leaders Leinster
Last season Leinster sent a second-string team to South Africa and were duly destroyed in a one-sided thrashing at Loftus.
Bulls lock Ruan Vermaak looks to offload the ball during their 31-7 URC win over the Dragons in Newport over the weekend. Picture: Geraint Nicholas/Huw Evans Agency/Gallo Images
The top two teams on the United Rugby Championship (URC) log, the Bulls and Leinster, are set to go head-to-head in what should be a thrilling encounter at the RDS Arena in Dublin on Friday night.
It will be the fourth meeting between the two sides in the URC, with the Bulls having won twice and Leinster triumphing once.
It will also be the third time the teams clash in Dublin, after Leinster beat the Bulls 31-3 in their first ever match in the competition back in 2021, before the Bulls stunned them 27-26 in the semifinals to reach the final and end as runners-up in their first URC campaign.
Last season Leinster sent a second-string team on their tour of South Africa and were duly destroyed 62-7 in a one-sided thrashing at Loftus.
This time round, however, a full-strength Leinster side featuring a host of Irish internationals, still buzzing after clinching their second straight Six Nations title, will be waiting for the Bulls in Dublin.
Classic clash
It is thus set up to be a classic clash between the two in-form teams in the URC this season, and should the Bulls win, they could put themselves in a great position to finish top of the log, while a victory for Leinster would see them pull further away.
“I know its going to be a great ‘Test’ match for us and a great test to see how good we (really) are,” Bulls director of rugby Jake White said ahead of the match.
The Bulls head into the game off a tough encounter against the Dragons in Wales, where they had to fight until the very end to score a try with the last move of the match, securing a bonus point 31-7 win that kept them in second place on the log, a point ahead of Glasgow Warriors.
‘We stuck to it’
“They were really good at trying to spoil everything. We couldn’t really get much momentum. They stopped our maul, they got in amongst us at the breakdown. At scrum time they were quite clever in getting the ball out quickly, so there wasn’t much contest at scrum time,” explained White.
“But we stuck to it and got over the line in the last play of the game to get that bonus point which at this stage of the tournament was vital for us.
“The bottom line is we found a way to get through that game with problems we haven’t experienced before. It was the first time a team did certain things to us at scrum and breakdown time, but we found a way.”
