Bulls must beat the Lions to stay in control of their own destiny

THE BLUE Bulls have become accustomed to having their fate being determined by a calculator and coach Nollis Marais says they must avoid that at all costs if they are to still remain relevant in this year’s Currie Cup campaign.

The men in blue face an acid test against the defending champions the Golden Lions on Friday at Loftus Versfeld and they will have no choice but to win if they are to remain in contention for a semi-final berth.

With two losses already this season from the four matches played, the Bulls will have to win all of their remaining matches to ensure that their spot in the semifinals is sorted and Marais says it will start on Friday against a Lions side that have only stumbled once this year.

While the Bulls will take a lot of heart from not having lost a game at home so far this season, they will be burdened with the knowledge that it was the very same Lions that ended their unbeaten run at home in Super Rugby this year and they will seek to repeat the same feat on Friday night.

“Unfortunately we lost two away games through errors that we made.

“But playing at Loftus is very important and it is a must-win for us.

“Otherwise we will go down to the last three games on permutations and hoping that someone else beats someone else and I don’t like that,” said Marais.

“It is still in our own hands and Friday night will be a big test for us and a big character test as well. I think we are on the right track but to say that we need to prove it on Friday night.”

Even though the Bulls lost to the log leading Sharks over the weekend, Marais has made two changes, both injury enforced with Hanro Liebenberg coming into the loose forward mix for Jannes Kirsten, who is ruled out for two to three weeks because of a shoulder injury.

Liebenberg will start at No 8 with captain Arno Botha moving to No 7 flank where he made some appearances during Super Rugby.

In the frontrow, Lizo Gqoboka is replaced by Pierre Schoeman in what Marais describes as a rotational change with each prop being handed two games before being swapped for the other.

“Unfortunately with the 22 player rule and both of them playing good rugby, I have to rotate them and give both players an equal chance,” Marais said of the dilemma he faces at prop. BLUE BULLS STARTING XV: Duncan Matthews, Travis Ismaiel, Dries Swanepoel, Burger Odendaal, Jamba Ulengo, Tian Schoeman, Piet van Zyl, Hanro Liebenberg, Arno Botha (captain), Ruan Steenkamp, Marvin Orie, RG Snyman, Jacobie Adriaanse, Jaco Visagie, Pierre Schoeman; REPLACEMENTS: Bandise Maku, Martin Dreyer, Nic de Jager, Roelof Smit, André Warner, Joshua Stander, Ulrich Beyers.