Cape Town – The Bulls have opted for an all-out attacking starting side, but assistant coach Chris Rossouw wants his players to manage Friday night’s Champions Cup clash against Lyon carefully in the face of an onslaught from the hosts.
The French club have to secure five log points to have any chance of reaching the playoffs, and need to rely on other results over the weekend to go their way as well to go through to the round of 16.
But they will come up against a star-studded Bulls outfit at the Stade Gerland (10pm SA time kickoff) on Friday night that need just a point to make the playoffs, and who would like to take all five to improve their chances of a home last-16 game at Loftus Versfeld.
Rossouw and the rest of the coaches are calling the shots while director of rugby Jake White recovers from an abdominal operation, and they made a few smart changes to the Bulls team that beat Exeter Chiefs 39-28 in Pretoria last week.
Rossouw said the new faces were due to rotation, but for instance, Cornal Hendricks will give the Bulls attack a fresh dynamic at inside centre as he comes in for the physical and direct Harold Vorster.
The same can be said about Nizaam Carr, who takes over the captaincy from the rested Ruan Nortje and replaces the hard-running Elrigh Louw at No 8 as well.
Another significant change is at halfback, where Johan Goosen will look to spark the backline at flyhalf, with Chris Smith on the bench, and scrumhalf Embrose Papier’s pace could place doubt in the Lyon defence.
“It’s quite an exciting centre pairing. It’s important to give Harold a full break. Harold gives us a lot of solidity and game management, and Cornal just gives us a little bit extra X-factor,” Rossouw said.
“For him and Wandi (Wandisile Simelane at outside centre), they must provide that for us within the conditions, but also remain solid in managing the game.
“Nizaam has got a nice mix between being direct and linking with the backs, so his responsibility will be to continue to give what Elrigh gave us, and add on linking with the backs.
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“It is different conditions, so he must make sure he does that first, and from a leadership point of view, take control of the team and set a good example.
“It has gone very well for Johan. He knows France quite well, having played this side a lot of years. His natural ability will be to take on the line, and he won’t shy away from that.
“The challenge for the group will be to manage the game, and that is part of his job and that of Embrose (Papier). Johan is looking good…”
Lyon boast a number of attacking threats themselves, such as wings Josua Tuisova and Ethan Dumortier, and classy ball-carriers like former Crusaders No 8 Jordan Taufua and French lock Romain Taofifenua.
“The last two games, we’ve managed our process quite well, and we’d like to continue to improve how we manage the game, and that momentum will be important for us,” Rossouw said.
“We know that Lyon will probably pick their best side as they still have a chance of making it – even though it’s a mathematical chance, they will go full-out at it.
“For us, it’s to see how we can handle that pressure and making sure that the lessons we’ve learnt last year and in the last couple of games, we will see how we maintain the momentum in terms of how we manage the game.”
Teams For Lyon
Bulls: 15 Kurt-Lee Arendse 14 Canan Moodie 13 Wandisile Simelane 12 Cornal Hendricks 11 David Kriel 10 Johan Goosen 9 Embrose Papier 8 Nizaam Carr (captain) 7 Cyle Brink 6 Marco van Staden 5 Janko Swanepoel 4 Ruan Vermaak 3 Francois Klopper 2 Bismarck du Plessis 1 Simphiwe Matanzima.
Bench: 16 Johan Grobbelaar 17 Gerhard Steenkamp 18 Mornay Smith 19 Ruan Nortje 20 Elrigh Louw 21 Zak Burger 22 Chris Smith 23 Lionel Mapoe.
Lyon: 15 Toby Arnold 14 Josua Tuisova 13 Josiah Maraku 12 Thibaut Regard 11 Ethan Dumortier 10 Leo Berdeu 9 Jean-Marc Doussain 8 Jordan Taufua (captain) 7 Patrick Sobela 6 Dylan Cretin 5 Romain Taofifenua 4 Felix Lambey 3 Demba Bamba 2 Guillaume Marchand 1 Sebastien Taofifenua.
Bench: 16 Liam Coltman 17 Hamza Kaabeche 18 Paulo Tafili 19 Temo Mayanavanua 20 Theo William 21 Mickael Guillard 22 Liam Rimet 23 Kyle Godwin.
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