Bulls hoping to run down play-off berth

THE last time the Blue Bulls and Griquas met in the Currie Cup, Griquas coach Pote Human called the encounter “a circus”.

His counterpart Pine Pienaar has made six changes to his starting line-up from last week in the hope of reviving the Pretoria side’s ambitions for a play-off berth.

Last weekend the Bulls went down 35-26 to the Golden Lions in a game that could have easily seen their Gauteng rivals win by a much bigger margin.

In the last encounter between the Bulls and Griquas at Loftus last month, it was the home side that scraped through with a 15-9 victory after a lacklustre performance by both teams.

Since then, the Pretoria side has suffered defeats in four of the five matches which followed, while the Kimberley outfit is yet to register a win this season.

Pienaar has made four changes in his backline for this weekend’s clash.

Fullback Jurgen Visser will get a start ahead of Clayton Blommetjies, who drops to the bench, while William Small-Smith will replace Ulrich Beyers at outside centre.

Flyhalf Handre Pollard returns to the starting line-up, with Tony Jantjies being relegated to the Bulls under-21 side’s bench this weekend. Wing Sampie Mastriet gets another run in the starting XV following Bjorn Basson’s return to the Springbok squad.

Among the forwards, two changes will see lock David Bulbring and prop Marcell van der Merwe getting starts.

Captain Jono Ross highlighted set-pieces as their biggest downfall in previous games and indicated that his team-mates have been working hard to rectify these this weekend.

“We weren’t happy with how our set-pieces went,” he said. “Whether it was (the opposition) who put us under pressure or we were at fault, we were just not good enough. We are hoping to get it together this week.”

If the Pretoria side want to keep alive any hopes of making the semifinals of the Currie Cup, they will need to win their next three matches with bonus points, something they have seldom done this season.

The Bulls have only collected one bonus point in their seven games so far.

But Pienaar remained optimistic, saying: “We showed in a few games that we can put ourselves in a position to score four tries and get the bonus points.

“In the last couple of matches we have not had good starts, so our focus is definitely to get a good start against the Griquas.

“The way we attack, we can definitely score four tries. However, that aspect will sort itself out only if we go out there and play good rugby,” Pienaar said on Wednesday.

Bulls’ CE Barend van Graan also remained cautiously optimistic of a semifinal spot, stressing that it all depended on how the team performed on a weekly basis over the next three weekends.

“I’m confident the players will do their best to win this weekend. It will be a tough one in Kimberley,” he said.

“At the moment, I think it is best to focus on starting to win the next game rather than looking too far ahead and placing the focus on the semifinals.”

The match between the Bulls and Griquas will be played at GWK Park in Kimberley and kicks off at 2pm.