The four South African teams will look to make up valuable ground on the Vodacom United Rugby Championship log this weekend as they take the field with a number of games in hand against most of the overseas franchises. In a repeat of last week’s matches at alternate venues, the Vodacom Bulls will host the Emirates Lions in Pretoria at 15h00 later today.
The Vodacom Bulls earned a well-needed victory last week in Johannesburg – only their second in the competition so far – and they will be desperate to build on that result at home on Saturday to possibly claw their way closer to the top end of the standings. They are currently in 13th position on the standings with 12 points.
The Johannesburgers, who are one position below the Pretoria outfit on the table on points’ difference, will be desperate to bounce back from back-to-back defeats as they travel to Loftus Versfeld, which will set the scene for a thrilling clash.
The Vodacom Bulls must be the favourites today, however, a hurt Lions team will travel to Pretoria with a brand new backline who will look to be a lot more physical on the attack and defence.
Although the weather is expected to be fair with no rain predicted, the rain was falling the whole of the night before and expected to continue until 10h00 today. A properly soaked Loftus Versveld could just be the equaliser that the visitors will be looking for.
Unfortunately, I expect the Lions' struggle in the line-outs to continue with Ruhan Straeuli definately not the answer and this could just be the difference between the two teams.
The Vodacom Bulls have opted for continuity, making only one change to the starting XV.
Scrumhalf, Zak Burger, will make a return to the starting team this week as the only change, where he will replace Embrose Papier in a rotational change that sees the latter starting the match off the bench.
Cornal Hendricks, who was on Carling Currie Cup duty earlier in the week, has also been added to the replacements as backline cover, and he will be the only new face to the bench that was at Emirates Airline Park last weekend.
“The result from last weekend when we beat the Emirates Lions at Emirates Airline Park will mean nothing. It’s now a new week and they will come to Loftus Versfeld a hungry side and will want to make amends for the defeat last Saturday,” said Vodacom Bulls director of rugby, Jake White.
“We expect nothing less than another challenging encounter against the side from Johannesburg. They showed how strong they can be in the set pieces last week, while also coming at us with some clever, running rugby. We can definitely expect more of the same this weekend.”
Emirates Lions head coach, Ivan van Rooyen named a new-look match 23 ahead of his side’s return leg trip to Loftus.
Disappointed with his team’s outing at Emirates Airline Park last week, Van Rooyen is adamant that his team has the ability to up the ante against their neighbours from across the Jukskei.
“Both players and management had difficult conversations post the Bulls fixture and we felt that a better showing was required if we wanted to be competitive this week.
“We felt our scrums and mauls were a highlight for us against the Bulls so it’s something we would like to capitalise on come Saturday.”
On team changes Van Rooyen said:
“It’s an opportunity once again for others to step up and show us what they can do on the big stage. We spoke last week about chances and how we as a group pride ourselves in creating these kinds of opportunities for players.”
Springbok Jaco Kriel takes over the captaincy reigns from Burger Odendaal who suffered a head injury last Saturday. Tiaan Swanepoel gets his chance at pivot, with Matt More is being afforded a starting opportunity after touring with the squad in September last year. Exciting prospects PJ Steenkamp and Quan Horn are also in line to make their VURC debuts off the replacements bench.
Weather: 24° Celsius, cloudy with no rain expected and a moderated easterly wind.
Prediction: Vodacom Bulls by 7.
Teams:
Vodacom Bulls: 15. Kurt-Lee Arendse, 14. Canan Moodie, 13. Lionel Mapoe, 12. Harold Vorster, 11. Madosh Tambwe, 10. Morné Steyn, 9. Zak Burger, 8. Elrigh Louw, 7. Arno Botha, 6. Marcell Coetzee (c), 5. Ruan Nortje, 4. Walt Steenkamp, 3. Jacques van Rooyen, 2. Johan Grobbelaar, 1. Simphiwe Matanzima. Replacements: 16. Bismarck du Plessis, 17. Lizo Gqoboka, 18. Robert Hunt, 19. Janko Swanepoel, 20. Muller Uys, 21. Embrose Papier, 22. Chris Smith, 23. Cornal Hendricks.
Emirates Lions: 15. Divan Rossouw, 14. Stean Pienaar, 13. Manuel Rass, 12. Matt More, 11. Edwill van der Merwe, 10. Tiaan Swanepoel, 9. Andre Warner, 8. Francke Horn, 7. Emmanuel Tshituka, 6. Jaco Kriel (c), 5. Ruben Schoeman, 4. Ruhan Straeuli, 3. Carlu Sadie, 2. Pieter Botha, 1. Sithembiso Sithole. Replacements: 16. Morne Brandon, 17. Morgan Naude, 18. Ruan Dreyer, 19. Ruan Venter, 20. PJ Steenkamp, 21. Morne van den Berg, 22. EW Viljoen, 23. Quan Horn.
