“Double Points” Make North-South Derby Win Important 

 

Vodacom Bulls director of rugby, Jake White said local derbies are important to consolidate their position on the United Rugby Championship log, therefore they will be desperate to beat the DHL Stormers on Saturday at 14:00 in Cape Town.

"The thing about derby games, which you're all aware of, they're like double points. Because you're in the same conference, if you get an away win or if you get a win against someone in your conference, it's like not only are you getting the 4 or the 5, you're making sure they don't get 4 or 5."

"I think for every conference, you look at when Munster play Leinster, if you look at when Zebra play Benetton, you look at our internal derby games, they're as tough as all other conferences as well."

"However, historically, you would also understand that the DHL Stormers playing against the Vodacom Bulls or the Blue Bulls while playing Western Provinces is the measurement of where South African rugby is every year."

"I said to someone now coming out that when the Bulls and the Stormers is the big game of the year, then we're doing our jobs and we're doing something right. The day that people don't talk about the North-South Derby as the big one means that we're not doing our jobs."

"I hear there is 40,000 tickets sold, and that makes me happy because it means that people still see the North-South Derby as one of the big clashes in the calendar. So we're also going to be desperate to win."

"We want to finish as high up as we can because we know what home-ground advantage means in the back end of the competition. Therefore, we need to win these games as well. So it's going to be an interesting clash and I'm looking forward to it."