A Bulls fringe side will be gunning to upset Northampton Saints, who have already beaten them twice previously in the Champions Cup.
A depleted Bulls team are gunning for what would be a big upset win over Northampton Saints in their Champions Cup second round match at Franklin’s Gardens in England on Sunday (kick-off 5.15pm) in an attempt to reignite a flagging season.
It will be an incredibly tough ask for the Bulls against a team they have lost to twice in the competition, across two seasons last year.
First in April last year, in the quarterfinals of the 2023-24 competition, an understrength Bulls team missing all of their Springboks stars was destroyed 59-22 by a fired-up host side, and then in December, during the pool stage of the 2024-25 tournament, the Bulls suffered their most chastening loss, as a close to full-strength side went down 30-21 on home turf.
Despite sending a squad featuring nine current and former Bok players to England, the Bulls will be missing their best, with Kurt-Lee Arendse, Handré Pollard, Canan Moodie, Wilco Louw, Ruan Nortjé and Marco van Staden all left at home.
Key players
They will thus be relying on players such as current Boks Cobus Wiese and star loose forward Elrigh Louw, who is returning to full fitness after a long injury layoff, to ignite their challenge against Saints.
Other players who will need to step up include Akker van der Merwe, Marcell Coetzee, Harold Vorster and Steadman Gans, while players who will be expected to make an impact from the bench are Khuta Mchunu, Mpilo Gumede, Nizaam Carr, and Embrose Papier.
Recent loan signing, flyhalf Kade Wolhuter, will be making his Bulls debut and will be desperate to impress his new employers after a difficult spell at the Lions, and he will be backed up off the bench by Keagan Johannes who will look to make an impact.
After going down to the competition’s defending champs Union Bordeaux Begles in their opening match at Loftus last weekend, after taking a 33-22 lead into halftime before being blanked in the second half to suffer a 46-33 loss, the Bulls need a win.
Another loss would leave their playoff hopes hanging by a thread, and would mean they would likely have to beat Bristol Bears at home and Section Paloise in France in their last two pool matches in January to qualify for the knockouts.
Sunday’s clash is thus an important, but incredibly difficult one, for the Bulls to produce an upset and get their Champions Cup campaign up and off the ground.
