Bulls to make Glasgow feel the heat
WHO will blink first between the Bulls and Glasgow in today’s United Rugby Championship showdown at Loftus Versfeld (2pm kick-off)?
It will be a battle of wits between two wily coaches in Jake White and Franco Smith, who have teams equipped to play both an all-out attacking style and a forward-dominated approach to unlock defences.
White was part of the Springbok coaching team in 1998 when Smith was a player in Nick Mallett’s side, so the Bulls and Glasgow mentors have walked a long path in the sport and will know each other well.
The over 1 300m of altitude in Pretoria will surely be a factor this afternoon, but as Munster proved recently, that doesn’t mean a European team can’t overcome the thin air to pull off victories – with the Irish province beating the Bulls and Lions in consecutive weeks on the highveld.
White fired the first shot yesterday by picking Akker van der Merwe at hooker ahead of the consistent Johan Grobbelaar.
Now Van der Merwe is a master at
controlling the ball at the back of a maul, and has scored most of his eight tries from that situation from line-outs this season.
Van der Merwe is also a powerful ball-carrier who will be more direct in his approach than Grobbelaar, who is more mobile and has a higher work rate, and has the ability to be a real factor at the breakdowns.
Smith has responded by keeping the usual Glasgow first-choice front row of Nathan Mcbeth, Johnny Matthews and Zander Fagerson on the bench.
Hooker Matthews actually leads the URC try-scorers’ list with 12, followed by Van der Merwe and Ulster’s Tom Stewart on eight.
Teams For Loftus Versfeld Bulls: 15 Willie le Roux 14 Canan Moodie 13 David Kriel 12 Harold Vorster 11 Kurt-lee Arendse 10 Chris Smith 9 Embrose Papier 8 Cameron Hanekom 7 Elrigh Louw (co-captain) 6 Marco van Staden 5 Ruan Nortjé (co-captain) 4 Ruan Vermaak 3 Wilco Louw 2 Akker van der Merwe 1 Gerhard Steenekamp.
Bench: 16 Johan Grobbelaar 17 Simphiwe Matanzima 18 Francois Klopper 19 Reinhardt Ludwig 20 Nizaam Carr 21 Zak Burger 22 Jaco van der Walt 23 Devon Williams.
Glasgow: 15 Josh Mckay 14 Kyle Steyn (captain) 13 Stafford Mcdowall 12 Sione Tuipulotu 11 Sebastian Cancelliere 10 Tom Jordan 9 George Horne 8 Jack Dempsey 7 Rory Darge 6 Matt Fagerson 5 Scott Cummings 4 Gregor Brown 3 Murphy Walker 2 Grant Stewart 1 Jamie Bhatti.
Bench: 16 Johnny Matthews 17 Nathan Mcbeth 18 Zander Fagerson 19 Max Williamson 20 Euan Ferrie 21 Henco Venter 22 Jamie Dobie 23 Duncan Weir.