Bulls look to buck the trend

Their poor record in New Zealand, and against the Blues in particular, will serve as motivation for the battling Pretoria side in Auckland

THERE is something about playing in New Zealand that is often the undoing of many South African sides and the Bulls are no different.

As they prepare to play their first game in the land of the Long White Cloud against the Blues at the QBE Stadium in North Harbour, there will be a dark cloud hanging over Nollis Marais’ side of having only beaten the Blues once in 10 outings in Auckland.

Even though that one victory only came four years ago, there are no remnants of that Bulls team in the current side.

It also hasn’t helped that the Bulls’ run up to facing the Blues was riddled with errors which led to two defeats out of their three matches so far this season. It all paints a rather bleak forecast for how tomorrow’s game will unfold.

The Bulls’ trip into unchartered waters and the ugly record they have in Auckland makes them the clear underdogs even though they come up against a Blues side that have won only one out of their four games.

But Marais seems to enjoy the underdog tag, not only in transferring the pressure to the home side but in probably finding a source of motivation for his team as they try to resuscitate a campaign that has hardly got out of the starting blocks. “If I look at all the newspapers at the moment, all South African teams travelling to New Zealand are underdogs so it doesn’t matter who plays here. It is obviously going to be a difficult task but I think it is nice going into the game as underdogs (because) then our guys know what they have to play for. We know about the history but it will only be the scoreline that matters and the guys are really looking forward to the match,” said Marais from Auckland yesterday. But the look of the Bulls won’t be of a team of underdogs as Marais has made some changes to the side that will help bring in the experience and take away the fear of playing in the enemy’s backyard.

Adriaan Strauss takes over the reins and will lead the side, taking over from Handre Pollard while last week’s hooker Edgar Marutlulle drops out of the match day 23 with Jaco Visagie starting from the bench.

The much stronger and steadier Lizo Gqoboka is the right choice loosehead while Nick de Jager comes in at No 7 in place of the suspended Renaldo Bothma.

The most significant change to the Bulls team comes in the midfield where Marais has partnered Springbok Jan Serfontein, pictured, and Jesse Kriel while keeping intact the back three of fullback Warrick Gelant and wings Jamba Ulengo and Travis Ismaiel.

For Serfontein tomorrow will be a special moment as he makes his 50th Super Rugby appearance for the Bulls but it will be his red hot form that will be more meaningful for his team’s intentions.

“It is nice to be back in the mix and playing as well as I did last week. I’m just looking at building on that performance and looking forward to Saturday’s game,” said Serfontein after his two tries against the Sunwolves at Loftus Versfeld.

While it makes sense that the Bulls immerse themselves in fixing their problems, turning their back on history and giving Serfontein a milestone to remember for all the right reasons, it will also be worth their while to ponder what not to do against a Blues side that has shown the ability to be dangerous when handed possession and space but are struggling to closing out matches.

“They are a very good side and they showed it in their first game of the season and they showed in last week’s game against the Crusaders when they led 21-5 at one stage. If you give them a lot of turnover ball they will punish you, so we will have to look after the ball much better and make sure we turn them around,” Marais said.