NERVOUS EXCITEMENT
SATURDAY’S NORTH-SOUTH DERBY HAS REAL BIG GAME FEEL TO IT Bulls’ atrocious record against the Stormers will hold no weight when the two meet this weekend.
The Bulls’ 0-7 record against the Stormers in the United Rugby Championship will hold no weight on Saturday when the two teams meet in a North-South derby at Loftus Versfeld.
This is the view of Bulls scrumhalf, Embrose Papier, who says the previous games between the teams were all in the past and will have little to no relevance when they renew their rivalry in Pretoria this weekend.
“To be honest we just see it as another game,” Papier told The Citizen ahead of the competition’s resumption following a week off.
“We can’t look back at those games, they are gone. Everyone will forget about them in years to come. We are just looking forward to the next game, it’s another match, it’s a new game we are focusing on the now,” he said.
Papier said the Bulls would be going into the game with plenty of positivity and the goal to come out on top after 80 minutes – like they do for every game.
“We came into the season with a plan, and our main plan was just to win. Every game we take seriously, every game is important to us, we want to win every game and put on a good performance for the fans,” said Papier, who is enjoying a good season and is playing some of the best rugby of his career.
“The coaches expect us to perform on the weekends and execute the plan. It’s still a long way to go, we just need to stay focused. It’s going to be tough, there are going to be injuries but we’ll take it game by game,” said Papier.
Saturday’s fixture has a real big game feel about it as 30 000 tickets have already been sold. There’s a lot at stake on the points table with just five points separating the two teams. The Bulls are in third with 35 points while the Stormers are in sixth place with 30 points.
Papier said the Bulls versus Stormers match has again brought butterflies to his stomach.
“I do get nervous, but not a bad nervous…more excited. That’s the mindset of the derbies and play-offs, you expect them to be massive. It’s almost like Test matches,” he said.
“The Stormers are a good side, and it’s going to be physical. They are five points behind, it’s going to be tough but we are looking forward to it,” Papier said.
The match kicks off at 5.05pm on Saturday. The day’s early derby is between the Lions and Sharks.
Two desperate teams will be going head-to-head when the Lions welcome the Sharks to Ellis Park for their crunch United Rugby Championship (URC) clash on Saturday afternoon.
Both teams are in different stages of desperation, with the Lions knowing they have to win to realistically stay in the hunt for a top eight finish and place in the competition knockouts come the business end.
The Sharks on the other hand, are rock bottom on the log and are effectively out of the top-eight running, having won just once and lost nine games this season, so their focus will likely be on getting some vital wins under their belt to build momentum into the Challenge Cup competition.
The Lions will also be desperate to arrest a slide of four straight losses in all competitions, including in back-to-back cross-Jukskei derbies, going down 30-28 to the Bulls in Pretoria, and then arguably their worst performance of the season, losing 25-10 at Ellis Park.
“They will be desperate, but so will we after our performance against the Bulls. There was a lot of frustration and disappointment coming away from that Bulls performance,” explained Lions assistant coach Ricardo Loubscher.
“The big thing for us is to take our opportunities. We had chances in that game. So a big focus for us will be to stay in the moment, be patient, show composure and when opportunities are there we need to take them.”
Loubscher claimed that it was frustrating for the team to have constant breaks between matches, with their first game against the Bulls having taken place on 27 January, and their second on 17 February, while they have now had another weekend off before the Sharks match.
He explained that they had utilised the time off to the best of their ability and that the players were looking forward to fixing what went wrong against their Highveld rivals against the Sharks this weekend.
“If you look back to the first game against the Bulls, ideally you want to play straight after that, especially after coming so close against them. So from our side ideally we would love to play week-in and week-out. We get better the more we play, which improves our performances,” said Loubscher.
“But it’s (the time off) been good for us. It was nice to have a bit of a break and get away.
“We have obviously been doing a lot of analysis on our performance against the Bulls, with a lot of reflection on where we can do better.