Durban — Bulls coach Jake White says his team is travelling to Durban to “give it a full go” against a Sharks team boasting nine current Springboks for the New Year’s Eve United Rugby Championship derby at the Shark Tank.
White says the Sharks are the strongest provincial team in the competition but adds any team can beat anybody on the day.
White has added three new faces to the squad that lost to the Stormers last week.
Simphiwe ‘power-pack’ Matanzima will start at loosehead prop along with Johan Grobbelaar and Mornay Smith in the front row whilst the second and back row remains the same.
At the back, Bernard van der Linde slots in at scrumhalf with Embrose Papier moving to the bench. Chris Smith starts at flyhalf, with Johan Goosen moving to fullback.
Kurt-Lee Arendse and Canan Moodie are the wings with Harold Vorster and Cornal Hendricks pairing up in the midfield.
“Looking at their team, it is easy to see why they are the strongest provincial team in the competition,” White said.
“We are going to play against nine Springboks … we did it in Cape Town last season against the SA ‘A’ side when nobody gave us a chance. Again, the uniqueness of this competition is that anybody can beat anybody, whether you are 11th on the log playing the top-ranked side, you can still get the result,” said White.
“We are going there to give it our full go. We have to play the best rugby to give us the best possible opportunity to get into the play-offs and everybody knows that if you play good rugby in the final few weeks of the competition, you have a good chance at winning the tournament.”
On Goosen at fullback, White said: “Last time we played them we actually picked Smith and Goosen at 10 and 15 and the combination worked, we played reasonably well. It helps us a lot to have two good kickers and passers of the ball. There is also a chance of rain tomorrow and that will suit us with the two at flyhalf and fullback.
“Our selection is not a reaction to them but it is because it is a tactic that worked for us when we played them at home and we would like to see it work again from a combination of two guys who understand each other.
“Sometimes you have to package things differently in order to get the best out of your players.”
Bulls: 15 Johan Goosen, 14 Canan Moodie, 13 Cornal Hendriks, 12 Harold Vorster, 11 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 10 Chris Smith, 9 Bernard van der Linde, 8 Elrigh Louw, 7 Cyle Brink, 6 Marco van Staden, 5 Ruan Nortje, 4 Ruan Vermaak, 3 Mornay Smith, 2 Johan Grobbelaar, 1 Simphiwe Matanzima
Replacements: 16 Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 17 Gerhard Steenekamp, 18 Sebastian Lombard, 19 Janko Swanepoel, 20 Nizaam Carr, 21 Embrose Papier, 22 Lionel Mapoe, 23 David Kriel.
IOL Sport