The Vodacom Bulls will face a tough task against the unbeaten French giants Stade Toulousain in the only match featuring a South African team on Sunday where they will be looking to secure their first away win in the competition at Stade de Toulouse at 16:00 SAA Time.
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The Pretoria side will back themselves to create an upset with the teams being closely matched on the attack this season, but they will be mindful of the fact that they will have to step up their defence after conceding 86 more points in their four pool matches.
Toulouse will undoubtedly enter the match as favourites, but with the Vodacom Bulls essentially entering the match as the underdogs, they will be wary of the fact that the pressure will be squarely on the home team.
The Vodacom Bulls have made just one change to its matchday 23. Dylan Smith comes in place of Simphiwe Matanzima, who has travelled home for family reasons, in an otherwise unchanged side from the one that did duty against Ulster a week ago.
Vodacom Bulls' head coach Jake White said: “Our squad is still relatively young, relatively inexperienced in terms of the competitions we are playing in but that is the best we have at this stage, but at least everyone is fit and healthy, available for the game,”
“We have had a good training week. This is one of those games where it is a knockout and you are either in or out. We have had the history of playing really well in knock-out games, look at our last couple of years and all the knockout games we have played we have won most of them.”
On the opponents: “It is an incredible team. I read somewhere where the coach of Munster was saying how powerful Toulouse is. A side laden with international players and they play a style that is well-known in the world of rugby. They are very big on offloading, not holding the ball up and creating rucks, a style that their coaches have been coaching here for a long time now. This is what makes them such a strong team compared to others in the world,”
Asked about whether the weather conditions could serve as the leveller in the encounter, White said: “It is quite a difficult thing to pre-call because they are an offloading team but they have a great deal of power as well. Looking at what Lyon did when they played against us with their power game, we struggled. The one sort of thing is to play like them and you got to almost match them in terms of keeping the ball up and keep moving them around because you cannot get into a physical fight with them,”
“Generally, poor weather becomes a leveller but when playing against a really good pack of forwards then it’s not really a leveller. They have a really good pack of forwards, with one of the best players they have had in the Six Nations on the bench, a guy who can play flak/lock. Not many teams can put that calibre of player on the bench,”
“I would prefer it to be dry, where both teams can express themselves.”
Teams:
Toulouse: 15. Thomas Ramos, 14. Juan Cruz Mallía, 13. Santiago Chocobares, 12. Pita Ahki, 11. Matthis Lebel, 10. Romain Ntamack, 9. Antoine Dupont (c), 8. Alexandre Roumat, 7. Francois Cros, 6. Jack Willis, 5. Emmanuel Meafou, 4. Richie Arnold, 3. Dorian Aldegheri, 2. Julien Marchand, 1. Cyril Baille. Replacements: 16. Peato Mauvaka, 17. Rodrigue Neti, 18. David Ainu’u, 19. Thibaud Flament, 20. Alban Placines, 21. Joshua Brennan, 22. Paul Graou, 23. Dimitri Delibes.
Vodacom Bulls: 15. Kurt-Lee Arendse, 14. Canan Moodie, 13. Cornal Hendricks, 12. Harold Vorster, 11. David Kriel, 10. Chris Smith, 9. Zak Burger, 8. Elrigh Louw, 7. Cyle Brink, 6. Marco van Staden, 5. Ruan Nortjé (c), 4. Ruan Vermaak, 3. Mornay Smith, 2. Johan Grobbelaar, 1. Gerhard Steenekamp. Replacements: 16. Bismarck du Plessis, 17. Dylan Smith, 18. Francois Klopper, 19. Janko Swanepoel, 20. WJ Steenkamp, 21. Embrose Papier, 22. Morné Steyn, 23. Stedman Gans.