Johannesburg — The Vodacom Bulls did much to raise their stock in the United Rugby Championship (URC) this past fortnight with back-to-back victories over neighbours the Emirates Lions, but if they are to continue this momentum, they will have to prove how far they have truly come against the Cell C Sharks this weekend.
In December last year, the Bulls were dominated by a Springbok-laden Sharks outfit at Hollywoodbets Kings Park, losing 30-16 in that match-up. And although a much-improved Lions outfit tested the men from Pretoria this past weekend, they will have to show their growth in the URC by managing a wounded Sharks team.
According to Bulls lock Ruan Nortje, one of the areas where his team will have to show how far they’ve come in recent weeks, will be in the set-pieces.
“If I remember correctly,” said Nortje on Monday, “we did struggle (against the Sharks last year) a bit in our set-pieces at scrum-time.
“That gave the Sharks a lot of opportunity to get into our 22 and covert that into points. A massive step up is needed from us at scrum-time this weekend and also at the breakdown ... We will have to work hard this week.”
The Sharks were pummelled into submission this past weekend in Cape Town in a 20-10 loss to the DHL Stormers — a defeat Nortje believes will do little to stifle the Durbanites ambitions
Said Nortje: "The Sharks are a quality side with lots of internationals.
“I don’t think this past weekend’s result will affect them in any way. They will definitely be a team that will be back up for it and will be ready to bounce back. So, it will be important for us to really, really step up this weekend."
In spite of two good victories over the Lions in as many Saturdays — the first a powerful 34-10 victory in Johannesburg, and the other a more recent grinding 21-13 triumph at Loftus Versveld — Nortje admitted that the Bulls still had much to improve upon.
“I think this past weekend against the Lions wasn’t a perfect performance from us,” Nortje explained in Afrikaans.
“We battled in several areas and we have lots of places to grow. We made basic errors, which cost us a lot. Even so, a win remains a win and four points are four points, so we can only take confidence out of the last two weekends.
"We picked up points and we can grow the positives, while correcting the negatives for when we face the Sharks
“Obviously,” he continued, “we struggled in a few departments, so we can definitely step up. We have a massive opportunity when we play the Sharks again. They are an awesome, quality side, so it will be great to test ourselves against one of the best teams in the country.”
Saturday’s URC encounter between the Bulls and Sharks at Loftus is scheduled to kick-off at 5pm, and will be preceded by the Lions v Stormers clash at 3pm at Emirates Airline Park.
There are two other URC matches penned in this weekend, both on Friday when Leicester face Edinburgh at 8pm, and thereafter Glasgow take on Munster.
IOL Sport