Bulls recall big guns to blast Stade Francais
Jake White is committed to clinching a place in the playoffs, having deployed theses 12 Springboks in the Vodacom Bulls team to battle Stade Francais at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday afternoon.
The match brings the curtain down on the Bulls’ 2024-25 Investec Champions Cup campaign, but White’s team still has a window of opportunity to finish fifth in Pool 3 and thus qualify for the EPCR Challenge Cup playoffs.
Stade Francais are currently in fifth place, and overtaking the Top 14 outfit would require the Bulls to clinch their first win of the campaign by a margin of at least 22 points, while denying their French opponents a bonus point.
The Bulls director of rugby has made it clear that this is the objective on Saturday, completely overhauling the team that went down 49-10 at Castres last week, the Bulls’ fourth successive defeat in all competitions.
Nizaam Carr, Boeta Chamberlain and Alulutho Tshakweni, all on the bench, are the only survivors from last week’s matchday squad. Recalled to the starting lineup is the core of the team that went down 20-17 against the Sharks at Kings Park on 21 December.
This includes the Springbok posse of captain Elrigh Louw, Johan Goosen, Embrose Papier, Cameron Hanekom, Marcell Coetzee, Ruan Nortje (back from a two-month injury layoff), Wilco Louw, Johan Grobbelaar and Gerhard Steenekamp in the run-on team, while Akker van der Merwe, Carr and Canan Moodie offer reinforcements from the wood.
“There is a lot to play for,” said White. “Can we hold them and win by 22 points? Can we keep them to scoring less than four tries and stay 22 points ahead? There are a lot of learnings that we can get out of this game.
“There is never a dead rubber when the Bulls are playing, and that says a lot about us as a franchise. We need 22 points, and that is our goal.
“The EPCR Challenge Cup is all or nothing for us. We want to win and that opportunity for us is now on the Challenge Cup. It’s not a dead rubber for anyone, it will be an interesting one for the supporters too because the numbers will change with each point scored.”
BULLS – 15 Devon Williams, 14 Sebastian de Klerk, 13 Stedman Gans, 12 Harold Vorster, 11 Sergeal Petersen, 10 Johan Goosen, 9 Embrose Papier, 8 Cameron Hanekom, 7 Elrigh Louw (c), 6 Marcell Coetzee, 5 Ruan Nortje, 4 Ruan Vermaak, 3 Wilco Louw, 2 Johan Grobbelaar, 1 Gerhard Steenekamp
Bench: 16 Akker van der Merwe, 17 Alulutho Tshakweni, 18 Francois Klopper, 19 Reinhardt Ludwig, 20 Nizaam Carr, 21 Zak Burger, 22 Boeta Chamberlain, 23 Canan Moodie
STADE FRANCAIS – 15 Joe Jonas, 14 Raffaele Storti, 13 Leo Monin, 12 Julien Delbouis, 11 Charles Laloi, 10 Louis Carbonel, 9 Thibaut Motassi, 8 Yoan Tanga, 7 Sekou Macalou (c), 6 Pierre Huguet, 5 Baptiste Pesenti, 4 Juan Martin Scelzo, 3 Francisco Gomez Kodela, 2 Alvaro Garcia Albo, 1 Isaac Koffi
Bench: 16 Luka Petriashvili, 17 Hugo N’Diaye, 18 Braxton Asi, 19 Ollie McCrea, 20 Andy Timo, 21 Mamoudou Meite, 22 Louis Foursans-Bourdette, 23 Mathis Ibo
