‘Stormers not a bogey team’
The high flying Bulls are set to welcome the improving Stormers to Loftus Versfeld next week for another eagerly anticipated North/South derby in the United Rugby Championship (URC).
As always the conversation is set to shift to whether the Bulls can finally break their duck in the competition against the Stormers, who have won all seven of the matches played between them over the past two and a half seasons.
This leads many to believe that the Cape side is the Pretoria side’s bogey team, however Director of Rugby Jake White (above) firmly denied that after his team’s URC win over the Lions at Ellis Park over the past weekend.
“It’s not our bogey team. I read a great article the other day – I don’t think the Sharks have beaten the Stormers since 2015, yet all we write about is how many times the Bulls have lost to the Stormers.
“So it’s definitely not a bogey team,” said White.
Five of the Stormers seven wins over the Bulls were on home soil in Cape Town, while only two of the seven games have been won by more than seven points, with the rest all going down to the wire.
Five of the wins have come in the competitions league phase, while the Stormers clinched an 18-13 win in the inaugural URC season finale, and won their quarterfinal clash last season 33-21, which is the biggest winning margin so far.
Their most recent clash saw the Stormers come out on top 26-20 in an entertaining game in Cape Town in December, while the two games played at Loftus over the past two seasons saw the Cape side emerge victorious 3026 and 23-19.
Another thriller is expected in Pretoria next weekend, especially with both teams in superb recent form and pushing their way up the URC table, with the Bulls currently third on the log and Stormers sixth.
Where the Bulls are in a better position than they were in previous seasons against the Stormers, is the successful utilisation of their squad, which has seen them use a large number of players in the URC and Champions Cup competitions this season.
They will thus have plenty of options against the Stormers and will hope to put out a team that can finally break their duck against arguably their biggest rivals.