Blue Bulls lock Juandre Kruger broke a finger in training yesterday and will be out of action for around a month. The injury rules him out of contention for the defending champions’ opening Super Rugby game against the Lions.
Kruger, who was highly rated as a youngster before seemingly turning his back on Pretoria when he joined Northampton in the UK, returned to the Kraal last season and made great strides in the second row in the absence of Victor Matfield. He had been named to start in the number 5 jersey in tomorrow afternoon’s warm-up game against the EP Kings, but will now be replaced by another good youngster, Cornell Hess.
Andries Ferreira, a 20-year-old lock from Affies who has been a regular in the Bulls junior sides over the last few years will come onto the bench. The Bulls have already reshuffled their team once this week to make space for the availability of Chiliboy Ralepelle, who will now start at hooker in place of Henry Bantjes.
Read on supersport that chilli and basson won’t play against the kings.
This game is on the telly, anyone watching?
Go Kings!!
Kings jerseys look pretty kak!
@Ben (Comment 3) : Red, yellow and black? Makes me think of the Chiefs.
Kings 6 bulls 0 after 25 min. Ben likes!
@Jarson (AddicteD) (Comment 4) : !ut the chiefs actually make those colours look good.
So wtf is this team’s name gonna be now? Is it ep kings or southern kings or southern spears? Can they make up their minds?
Derick kuun is a real F’ing snotkop!
Bulls kaking af now! Kings 23 bulls 0 after almost 60min.
Kings 23 – 5 Bulls
Try converted
Kings 23 – 7 Bulls
67 minutes
The EP strip is awful….Craig Joubert consistant coaching of them is also pissing me off…it seems that Solly has done a good job of coaching the EP’ers of cynical play in the Red Zone….Monty having a good game.
Final score
Bulls 7
Kings 23
Kings 23 – 7 Bulls
FULL TIME
woop woop!
@robdylan (Comment 15) :
Bulls depth looking very ordinary.. but we should not take any of these results seriously..
Wish someone could just break derieck kuun’s nose!
I wonder if the bulls have made any plans on grooming a new captain in the coming season with Matfield and lots of the senior players leaving and the ref always having to tell Kuun to have a word with himself.
@Richard Ferguson (Comment 14) : Music to my ears
@Danman110 (Comment 18) : Dewald Potgieter might be the next captain.
Yes he will be a good option seeing that he is the best flank they have at the moment and will play most of the games. He also has a better demeanor on the field than Kuun.
Hmmmmmm
Okay these warm up games mean nothing to the S15 sides.
The record book will show that the Kings beat the Bulls. THIS gives the Kings’ call for elevation to SuperRugby much more weight in their eyes.
expect the Cheetahs to field a near full strength side when they play. They don’t need any of the fallout hitting them.
okay – these games means nothing – but if these are the Bulls “depth”, i’ll be somewhat worried….
IMHO, Derrick Kuun should have been send to the cool box after his 2nd “shirt grabbing” incident…he should be taught that he cannot get away with these “tactics”
One guy that really impressed me was Siyanda Grey – awsome supportive play and try from those two guys. Kings looks way better than I expected.
lastly – I kinda like their jerseys!
would love to know how many Kings players will be poached by bigger teams after these warmup games against the big 5
@KSA Shark © (Comment 24) : Many of the Kings players are guys that the other unions no longer required the services of. But when the SR injuries start to take their toll on the Big 5, EP would be a good place to look for a short term solution. 2 guys who could have penciled themselves on shopping lists are the impressive Siyanda Grey and Sharks throwaway Monty Dumond. The latter coz I don’t see how the Bulls could have gained much confidence from what they saw of Brummer yesterday.
I’d say well done to the Kings for 2 reasons. Firstly they put more than 30000 bums in seats for the 2nd home game in a row. There are N/Hemis, Aus & NZ teams that can only dream of these kinds of attendance figures for regular season matches let alone pre-season outings.
Secondly the Bulls have been the or the thereabout team since the Vodacom Cup started. The Bulls team fielded yesterday looked stronger than their V/Cup team will be. EP have a history of being near the bottom of the V/Cup table. Based on this result I expect a huge turnaround in EP’s V/Cup fortunes this season.
Meaningless game? For the Bulls maybe but a big stepping stone for the Kings.
@beet (Comment 26) :
on the attendance.
I would be keen to see the ticket price comparison between the Neo series and the EP warm-ups.