Bulls coach Johan Ackermann retained veteran loose forward Marcell Coetzee as captain for their United Rugby Championship (URC) match against Edinburgh tonight at 21:45 (SA Time).
Ackermann explained that the decision to keep Coetzee as captain, despite the return of regular "club captain" Ruan Nortje to the starting lineup, was made following a discussion with both players. The coach described the choice as being in the "best interest of the team" and noted it was an "easy" conversation as the two are teammates and friends.
“It was an easy discussion just to keep that a bit of continuity with Marcel, and that brings normally also the best of Marcel as a captain,” Ackerman said.
“Ruan is the club captain. We all know he’s the is the overall captain, but Marcell has really done a good job for us last week, and we just wanted that continuity from a captaincy perspective.”
“If either one of them is not on the field, the other can just run with the captaincy. They’ve played together so many times, they always feed off each other.”