Old boy Botha’s advice to Bulls: Relax and enjoy the final

IT HAS been a touch over a decade since Gary Botha led an unfancied Blue Bulls team to a pulsating 28-28 draw against the Free State Cheetahs in the Currie Cup final.

An unlikely captain at the time and a hooker never given his dues, Botha knows all about going to Bloemfontein as underdogs but believes this Bulls team have it in them to pull off a major coup against the overwhelming favourites and undefeated Cheetahs side.

Now the scrum doctor at the Bulls, Botha laughs off that tag and in the spirit of the Blue Bulls teams of 2002 and 2006, who beat the Golden Lions and drew with the Cheetahs, believes it will come down to the team that grabs their opportunities on the day and not what they did during the season.

“It will be typical finals rugby and it boils down to the team that can execute their plan to the best of their abilities. They’ve been prepped well, finals rugby you can’t do anything specific, you have to go out there and play. It is all about the team that takes the opportunities in implementing the game plan in that game,” Botha, said.

And even though the Bulls are faced with what seems like an insurmountable mountain to climb, Botha says the experience the team has gained from their failed semi-final last year and also winning last week’s semi-final against Western Province, has helped in the evolution of the team and their belief that beating the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein is possible.

Said Botha: “I don’t really worry about underdogs, heroes and those type of cliché tags people give teams.

“I do believe that these young guys have been exposed to situations where they pick up the necessary experience.

“As the team grows, time progresses and so do teams and players progress and develop and that is the biggest thing we are trying to get into place here.

“You will get tested in certain games and this team have grown together and hopefully picking up together the experience as a team.”

Botha believes that there is only so much the management can do and all of what unravels on the field will rest on the shoulders of the players.

Utmost, though, for Botha is that the players enjoy the moment of being in a final but they must not lose sight of why they are there even though it seems as if everything will be against them at a stadium where they were convincingly beaten 43-20 by the Cheetahs.

“I think the energy in the group is good and the guys have been exposed to semi-finals for two years in a row now.

“The thing we’ll just preach and what coach Nollis Marais has been preaching is to take the opportunities, enjoy it and just play. That’s the outlook we have for the final.

“I don’t think there is anything specific that one can say to the young players about a final. We are not on the pitch, they’ll be on the pitch,” he concluded.