Cape Town - Cornal Hendricks shared a delightful video on his Instagram story on Saturday of Kurt-Lee Arendse, Canan Moodie and Stedman Gans dancing to a remix of Dionne Warwick’s ‘That’s What Friends Are For’.
Then they took it out onto the training pitch, where they jived to Temple Boys’ ‘Amen Stifler’ – with Arendse’s skouers (shoulders) antics the most striking.
Considering how tough life has been on the pitch for the Bulls in recent months, maybe letting their hair down and showing off their moves is their best chance of causing an upset in today’s Champions Cup last-16 clash against Toulouse (4pm SA time kickoff).
They’ve got very little to lose at the 33 000-capacity Stade de Toulouse. The shocking 32-28 Currie Cup defeat to the Griffons on Friday made it nine losses in a row across all competitions, and most critics will expect that number to go up to 10 today.
There is no doubt that the star-studded Toulouse are overwhelming favourites. But even their finest player, Antoine Dupont, is well aware of the dangers of writing off opponents entirely.
“We know the South African style of play, even if it’s not just them who practice it. A lot of teams play on the physique, the footwork. It’s in their DNA… they do it very well, they master it,” the French scrumhalf told French publication L’Équipe this week.
“And they also have a very efficient, very dangerous backline. They have a lot of strengths. They have quite a few internationals, but a very good team.
“They have a large squad, since they play three competitions at the same time (Champions Cup, URC and Currie Cup). We know the South African breeding ground, which feeds all the championships in the world.”
And the Bulls were much improved in last week’s 32-23 defeat to Ulster in Belfast. The pack seemed to rediscover their physicality, they showed great tenacity on defence, and returning Springboks Arendse and Moodie reignited the attack.
But Jake White knows that counts for little, as it’s only the scoreboard that matters.
“We took a lot of positives out of that game. That Ulster side beat the Stormers 35-5. So, if you put that in context, the Stormers are the champions and one of the strongest teams this year, on the back of last year’s results – and they struggled and got beaten convincingly,” the Bulls director of rugby said after naming an unchanged starting line-up.
“To come within four or five minutes of winning that game, there is a massive positivity that we got out of it. But what you need to do to get out of that is to win as well…
“As much as we think we have improved, we need to find a way to win. Sometimes winning ugly is as good as playing well and getting confidence out of a game when you lose. So, there isn’t much particularly (that we need to improve) other than to find a way to win.”
Of course, the Bulls will look to last year’s URC triumph over Leinster in Dublin for added inspiration. That 27-26 semi-final win was totally against the odds, and it will take a similarly out-of-this-world effort to knock over Toulouse.
It’s a long shot, but hope springs eternal.
“All sports teams want to play their best rugby at the end of the competition. We take a lot of value out of that… Leinster haven’t lost this year as well,” White said.
“So, it just shows you how good they were and how good they’ve been. The last time they lost was to the Bulls, so there are a lot of positives to take out of that.
“It’s a knockout game now, and generally in Currie Cup playoffs and finals, in different competitions, we’ve generally played well.
“It’s another opportunity to measure ourselves against a really quality team in a must-win game, but while you don’t want to harp on the Leinster game too much, you’ve got to use what’s important.
“At the same time we beat Leinster last year, they dominated Toulouse and won that Champions Cup game 40-17.
“That’s the amazing thing about sport: people follow teams around the world to be there when that underdog gets an opportunity to win the game. That’s what makes sport unique.
“We are definitely the underdogs. We are under no illusions about how tough it’s going to be to play against Toulouse away, but for our group as players and coaches, it’s a great way for us to see where we are in our growth over the last couple of years.”
Teams For Stade de Toulouse
Toulouse: 15 Thomas Ramos 14 Juan Cruz Mallia 13 Santiago Chocobares 12 Pita Ahki 11 Matthis Lebel 10 Romain Ntamack 9 Antoine Dupont 8 Alexandre Roumat 7 Francois Cros 6 Jack Willis 5 Emmanuel Meafou 4 Richie Arnold 3 Dorian Aldegheri 2 Julien Marchand 1 Cyril Baille.
Bench: 16 Peato Mauvaka 17 Rodrigue Neti 18 David Ainu’u 19 Thibaud Flament 20 Alban Placines 21 Trevor Brennan 22 Paul Graou 23 Dimitri Delibes.
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 (captain) 4 Ruan Vermaak 3 Mornay Smith 2 Johan Grobbelaar 1 Gerhard Steenekamp.
Bench: 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.
@AshfakMohamed