The North-South derby between Bulls vs Stormers takes centre stage

The North-South derby between the Vodacom Bulls and DHL is set to take centre stage this Saturday at Loftus Versfeld.

The home side is starting to find its cohesion as a unit following an inconsistent start to the Vodacom Super Rugby Unlocked, and they epitomised that with the showing they put up against the Cell C Sharks, dismantling the side from Durban.

The Stormer, on the other hand, is still trying to hit fifth gear, they have won both of their games but have been unconvincing, depending on strong second half finishing.

The match will be centralized around the forward’s pack, how they are going to try and nullify each other. There are also interesting matchups, the retuning Steven Kitshoff and Trevor Nyakane scrumming at each other, while the exciting Juarno Augustus will try to improve his game across the experienced old head of Duane Vermeulen.

The backs too will want to have a say in the match, both unions have X factor runners who have excellent finishing abilities, for the Bulls it’s the midfield combination of Cornal Hendricks and Stedman Gans, world cup winner Warrick Gelant showed his quality when he won the game against the Phakisa Pumas last week, creating space and running to the white line.

Speaking to the media ahead of the weekend’s match, Bulls Director of Rugby is looking forward to the intense game, and also excited about his team hitting fine form at this stage of the tournament.

“I always said it’s a matter of time before we click, I’d rather we click sooner than later. To be fair it was a good performance from us against the Sharks, there’s massive confidence in the team.

What we want to focus on is getting better, we have improved in everything in every week; discipline, scrumming, mauling, breakdowns, and back attacks. I think little by little we are getting more confident in each area.

I’m also a realist, the Stormers is always a tough game, from the day of the Western Province and Northern Transvaal, or when its Province versus the Blue Bulls; the intensity is always the same. I’m hoping we can build from last week but I also appreciate it’s a different challenge.

We have to get a lot of things right in each area against a quality team but also a quality pack of forwards that are coming up to Pretoria,” said White.

DHL Stormers Head Coach John Dobson said that his side is looking forward to testing themselves in what should be another North-South classic.

“This match is one of the highlights on the South African rugby calendar, so we are looking forward to taking on that challenge this weekend.

“This is a great chance for the team to show our faithful supporters what it means to us to play for them, we know that we will have to be on our game to come away with the result on Saturday,” he said.

Vodacom Bulls: 15. David Kriel, 14. Travis Ismaiel, 13. Stedman Gans, 12. Cornal Hendricks, 11. Kurt-Lee Arendse, 10. Morné Steyn, 9. Ivan van Zyl, 8. Duane Vermeulen (C), 7. Elrigh Louw, 6. Marco van Staden, 5. Ruan Nortje, 4. Jason Jenkins, 3. Trevor Nyakane, 2. Johan Grobbelaar, 1. Jacques van Rooyen.

Replacements: 16. Joe van Zyl, 17. Gerhard Steenekamp, 18. Marcel van der Merwe, 19. Sintu Manjezi, 20. Nizaam Carr, 21. Embrose Papier, 22. Chris Smith, 23. Marco Jansen van Vuren.

DHL Stormers: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Edwill van der Merwe, 13 Dan du Plessis, 12 Rikus Pretorius, 11 Leolin Zas, 10 Damian Willemse, 9 Herschel Jantjies, 8 Juarno Augustus, 7 Ernst van Rhyn, 6 Jaco Coetzee, 5 JD Schickerling, 4 Salmaan Moerat, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Steven Kitshoff (captain).

Replacements (from): 16 Scarra Ntubeni, 17 Leon Lyons, 18 Neethling Fouche, 19 Chris van Zyl, 20 David Meihuizen, 21 Marcel Theunissen, 22 Ben-Jason Dixon, 23 Godlen Masimla, 24 Tim Swiel, 25 Angelo Davids, 26 Tristan Leyds.