Tour to sort Bulls from boys
The next two weeks will have some bearing on how far the Bulls will go in the 2017 Super Rugby competition as they have daunting back-to-back clashes against New Zealand sides, Blues and Chiefs.
The Bulls‚ who left the country this week after beating the Sunwolves 34-21 at Loftus on Friday‚ take on the Blues at the QBE Stadium in Auckland on Saturday and the Chiefs at the FMG Stadium in Waikato the following weekend.
There is also the matter of a return clash against the Sunwolves at the Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium in Japan, where they will be looking to complete the double over the Africa Conference One strugglers who have lost their opening four matches.
Bulls captain Adriaan Strauss‚ who has taken over the captaincy from flyhalf Handré Pollard following his return from injury‚ said the trip to New Zealand will test their relatively young and inexperienced side.
“It’s a huge opportunity for the guys‚ we are excited about the tour and we are fully aware that it is going to be tough‚” he said. “They are a rugby country‚ they play good rugby and that is a challenge for us. But we are confident of what we can achieve over there.”
Strauss‚ who missed the Bulls’ two opening matches — defeats to the Stormers in Cape Town and the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein — returned to action against the Sunwolves last Friday to help his side to their first win of the season.
“It is great to be back with the guys on the field and it really felt good to be out there playing rugby again‚” he said.
“We showed against the Sunwolves that we can play good rugby because we played a lot in their half. But we had a couple of line-outs and mauls which we could not finish.” He said they planned to play more clinically.
Strauss said although they played good rugby during their win over the Sunwolves‚ there was room for improvement.
“We have not played to our potential to be honest — we are growing as a team. I believe that we will get there and we have a lot of hard work to do.
“We were a lot better this week in terms of intensity — we played in the right areas. It is just that we made a lot of errors and we need to solve a few details going forward. We haven’t hit our markers in so many aspects of the game, but we can improve a lot and we have set goals in specific areas.”
Meanwhile‚ the Blue Bulls Company has confirmed that an agreement with winger Luther Obi had been reached to end his contract. The former Junior Springbok has been on the union’s books since late 2015 and played in two Currie Cup qualifier matches in 2016, but missed a large chunk of the season due to injury.