The Bulls against the United Rugby Championship defending champions Leinster, the repeat of last season’s final, is the pick of the matches in Round Two of the competition, with the Loftus Versfeld clash of the titans kicking off at 6.30pm on Saturday.
Leinster suffered the ignominy of posting a big fat zero on the scoreboard last weekend against the inspired Stormers in Cape Town, the first time the nine-time champions have been scoreless in the competition since Munster blanked them 18-0 in September 2008 when the tournament was known as the Magners League.
But this is not the academy squad, like the one that the Bulls hammered 62-7 in Pretoria in April 2023, with only the British and Irish Lions contingent missing from the Leinster line-up. Leinster’s team announced on Friday includes 13 internationals and the pain of the previous weekend will no doubt drive them to the deepest wells of effort on Saturday.
The Bulls won their opening game, against Ospreys at Loftus, 53-40, but they also didn’t fully hit their straps. They also added to their considerable list of injuries with veteran Springbok centre Jan Serfontein and SA U20 wing Cheswill Jooste, who made an exciting debut, forced out of this weekend’s match. Twelve of their squad for Saturday were involved in the final against Leinster in June.
The defence - they conceded six tries - is the major concern for coach Johan Ackermann as they take on historically one of the slickest attacking sides in world rugby. The Leinster backline, with Luke McGrath and Sam Prendergast pulling the strings at halfback, the quality of Robbie Henshaw in midfield and Tommy and Jimmy O’Brien in the back three, as well as the Springbok Slayer Ciaran Frawley on the bench, are likely to punish the Bulls’ mistakes with the sort of ruthlessness typical of champions.
But where Leinster came horribly undone against the Stormers was at forward. They were totally dominated in the set-pieces and that is a traditional strength of the Bulls, especially with Springboks Gerhard Steenekamp and Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg in the tight five. Set-piece dominance is also what made the difference for the Bulls in their otherwise messy win over Ospreys.
The Bulls will undoubtedly look to put Leinster under the sort of forward pressure that disrupts their attack.
Away in Italy, the Lions have not turned a deaf ear to their critics and, according to forwards coach Barend Pieterse, there were some “quite harsh words” for the team after their 33-20 defeat in Cardiff, despite the hosts playing with 14 men for 20 minutes.
Ahead of their match against Zebre Parma on Sunday afternoon, Pieterse said “the talk for us has been about minimising mistakes, we made a lot of unforced errors and that’s on us. We also need to get off the line more in defence and be more physical in contact.”
The Lions have also made changes to their team, with eighthman Francke Horn returning to lead the side. Etienne Oosthuizen comes in at lock and the exciting Renzo du Plessis starts at openside flank. The composed Chris Smith is back at flyhalf after the heavy blow to the head he took in the Currie Cup final, and former Sharks wing Eduan Keyter makes his first URC start for the Lions.
Cardiff were the only one of four clubs that make up the endangered federation of Welsh teams in the URC to win in the opening round, and two of those losing sides, the Ospreys and Dragons, face South African opposition this weekend.
The Ospreys go from Loftus Versfeld to Cape Town Stadium to take on the Stormers, slayers of the defending champions in the first round. The Stormers were fed a wonderful supply of front-foot ball by their forwards against Leinster and, given their struggles in Pretoria, this is the area the Ospreys are going to have to show marked improvement in if they are to have a chance of winning.
Ospreys did show, however, some ability to cash in if the Stormers err, but if the home side are accurate, then that backline of their’s is sure to provide a steady ration of tries this season.
Coach John Dobson also has five marauding, powerful loose forwards at his disposal, while the front row of Neethling Fouche, Andre-Hugo Venter and Vernon Matongo were highly impressive in dismantling Leinster.
The Sharks, meanwhile, take on the Dragons at Rodney Parade in Newport on Friday night in the most obvious game of their first overseas tour to target. They predictably fell to the greater experience of 2023/24 champions Glasgow Warriors in their first match, and the might of Leinster, probably with their British and Lions back, awaits next weekend.
But there were many aspects of the Sharks play against Glasgow, in a match that was evenly contested up until the 70th minute, that would have pleased coach John Plumtree. Maintaining control of their game for the full 80 minutes is the challenge though, and most of that responsibility will obviously be on a new halfback combination of Jaden Hendrikse and Jean Smith.
Hendrikse shifts back to the more accustomed position of scrumhalf, while Smith replaces him at flyhalf.
“We’ve changed the nine and 10 because we didn’t really get our attacking game going, with a new scrumhalf and Jaden out of position, and the elements in Cardiff were tough. I would like to see them control the game, their decision-making in terms of whether to run or kick will be important for us.
“Jean has natural instincts I really like and he played well in the Currie Cup, but this is a step up in intensity. It’s a really good opportunity to see how much he has grown,” Plumtree said.
The exciting attacking skills of Edwill van der Merwe will now be on display at fullback, while young Jurenzo Julius will have the experience of Lukhanyo Am alongside him in midfield.
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