Cape Town - The Bulls arrived in England on Wednesday night to sub-zero temperatures, having come from summer in Pretoria and travelled for 26 hours in economy class – and they are taking on an Exeter Chiefs side filled with Test players, while they are shorn of their own current Springboks.
But coach Jake White has issued a rallying call to his depleted squad to “sink or swim” in today’s Champions Cup clash at Sandy Park (3pm SA time kickoff).
It doesn’t get much harder for this Bulls side, who did the almost unthinkable in beating Lyon 42-36 at Loftus Versfeld last weekend.
They played some wonderful attacking rugby to run a 28-0 first-half lead, but then had to defend desperately in the closing stages to pull off a bonus-point win.
Exeter at home, though, are a significantly tougher challenge, with several established Test players such as fullback Stuart Hogg, wing Jack Nowell, centre Henry Slade, loose forward Sam Simmonds, lock Jonny Gray and front-rowers Luke Cowan-Dickie and Scott Sio.
The Bulls do have some old stagers like Bismarck du Plessis, Morne Steyn, Dylan Smith, Jacques van Rooyen and Nizaam Carr, but very few of the other visitors would have had to deal with such cold conditions and top-quality opposition.
“It’s completely different: 26 hours of economy class around the world, it’s about minus-two outside, four-hour bus journey – what more can I say! This is very different to getting up in your own bed, 30 degrees …” White said from a freezing Exeter yesterday.
“But as I said to them, sometimes you don’t always get opportunities when you want them and the environment you want them. That is what makes rugby such a fantastic game.
“But in saying that, I am fully confident that these guys understand it, and they will give it their best.
“I am repeating myself: A lot of (SA) players between 25 and 30 are playing abroad, so we have these really young talented players, and there is no way you can protect them – they’ve got to either sink or swim.
“Tomorrow, they will get another understanding of what it’s like to play at this level. Exeter won the double two years ago, have a great squad and a great environment.
“It’s going to be tough for our guys, but it’s all part of coaching and growing as a group.”
But that doesn’t mean White has thrown in the towel just yet. This Bulls group were given no chance of beating Lyon last weekend, and while Exeter are much more streetwise and have a strong team, the visitors have a plan worked out to deal with the expected attacking threats from the hosts.
Steyn will have to be the calm head at flyhalf, like he was last week, but he will need the likes of Du Plessis, Smith and Carr to produce another big display to secure enough possession for the likes of exciting scrumhalf Bernard van der Linde and outside backs like Stravino Jacobs, Stedman Gans and Wandisile Simelane to thrive in space.
“Exeter in the 22 are very, very dangerous – probably the most efficient team in the 22 in the whole competition. They’ve got internationals almost across the field, they are incredibly efficient in the 22, they hold onto the ball for 20 phases at times, which puts your defence under huge amounts of pressure,” White said.
“What we’ve got to do is either hold onto the ball for as long as we can and not give it to them – which comes with a risk, because if you don’t hold onto the ball accurately, you can turn it over and give them the ball… and concede penalties, which means they get easy opportunities into your 22.
“Or we are going to have to make sure we keep them pinned in their own half. It’s a little bit of both, I think – it’s either holding onto the ball, or making sure when we kick, we kick cleverly.
“It depends on how we manage the game… It will be a task for us – and that’s why I had a meeting with the leadership group now – to find the balance between how we need to either hold onto the ball or build pressure with kicking.”
Teams For Sandy Park
Bulls: 15 Wandisile Simelane 14 Sibongile Novuka 13 Stedman Gans 12 Chris Barend Smith 11 Stravino Jacobs 10 Morné Steyn (captain) 9 Bernard van der Linde 8 WJ Steenkamp 7 Muller Uys 6 Nizaam Carr 5 Janko Swanepoel 4 Reinhardt Ludwig 3 Jacques van Rooyen 2 Bismarck du Plessis 1 Dylan Smith.
Bench: 16 Joe van Zyl 17 Lizo Gqoboka 18 Sebastian Lombard 19 Cameron Hanekom 20 Phumzile Maqondwana 21 Keagan Johannes 22 Carlton Bannies 23 Juan Mostert.
Exeter Chiefs: 15 Stuart Hogg 14 Jack Nowell 13 Henry Slade 12 Rory O’Loughlin 11 Olly Woodburn 10 Joe Simmonds 9 Sam Maunder 8 Sam Simmonds 7 Christ Tshiunza 6 Dave Ewers 5 Jonny Gray 4 Dafydd Jenkins 3 Harry Williams 2 Luke Cowan-Dickie (captain) 1 Scott Sio.
Bench: 16 Jack Yeandle 17 Alec Hepburn 18 Josh Iosefa-Scott 19 Ruben van Heerden 20 Santiago Grondona 21 Will Becconsall 22 Solomone Kata 23 Josh Hodge.
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