The Bulls have issued a medical update ahead of this weekend’s Super Rugby opener against the Sharks in Durban.
Only three players are out of selection contention this week, with Arno Botha, as previously confirmed, the most serious of these. The young Bok flanker will undergo surgery today to repair a second ACL rupture within a year. Botha will be about of the game for at least six months and thus won’t feature for the Bulls in Super Rugby this year.
Other players who are still out are loosehead prop Morne Mellet, recovering from a back injury, and utility back Jesse Kriel, who suffered a calf contusion in Polokwane last weekend. They will be back within two and three weeks respectively.
The Bulls side to face the Sharks will be confirmed on Wednesday.
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Damn I feel for Arno Botha. He must be gutted..
Bulls should look something like this :
15 Jurgen Visser, 14 Akona Ndungane, 13 JJ Engelbrecht, 12 Jan Serfontein, 11 Bjorn Basson, 10 Louis Fouché, 9 Francois Hougaard, 8 Pierre Spies (captain), 7 Jacques du Plessis, 6 Deon Stegmann, 5 Grant Hattingh, 4 Flip van der Merwe, 3 Werner Kruger, 2 Callie Visagie, / Bongi Mbonambi ? 1 Dean Greyling.
@Original Pierre (Comment 2) : oh bring me that pack 🙂
@robdylan (Comment 3) : 😛
good centre pairing… 🙄
@The Great Couch Shark (Comment 5) : I don’t want to say too much. Pride comes before a fall and all that.
@robdylan (Comment 6) : Wouldn’t it be justice, should the Sharks put a mother of a score past the bulls.
They way they’ve managed their players, the way they’ve used their checkbook to buy their way into talent instead of developing it. The way they’ve begged Matfield to come out of retirement as a last ditch attempt at reversing the damage that they’ve done by overspending with gay abandon.
As a proud South African I have always disliked the bulls, but this bulls team requires special attention from our team. Our team has spared no expense in getting their house in order, vs. the other team who seemed hell bent on ruining their own franchise.
@FireTheLooser (Comment 7) : oooooh meneer….. please bite that tongue now! I’m far too superstitious to engage in that sort of talk before the game 🙂
@FireTheLooser (Comment 7) : Really? You want to get into a debate over teams’ players that were bought and not born and raised from that area?
This is the professional era. Compare the 5 sides and see.
But, as a proud South African, I support the Bulls, although I have to agree that since Meyer left the union, very questionable acquisitions have been made and quality players have unnecessary left mainly due to contracting. If this pack stated above should start, they will get a hiding, and it will be the fruit of some thoughtless contracting.
The Bulls have the personnel to achieve something this year, but it is up to Ludeke to actually pick the right ones and discard the image players. Then we’ll be sorted. Only time will tell if this will happen. We can’t afford another contract debacle like last year.
@robdylan (Comment 8) : With you there, but damn it s difficult to hold back …
You guys shouldn ‘t get too excited. I’m just guessing of course.
Wasn’t there some talk of Naas er Derrick Hougaardt as well?
@FireTheLooser (Comment 7) :
>> As a proud South African I have always disliked the bulls
That statement makes no sense at all.
As a proud South African I have always supported all our teams, but of course supporting the Sharks in local derbys.
@MysticShark (Comment 11) : I don t know.
The blatent bulls biast of certain refs doesn’t exactly fill me with pride …
@Blue Centurion (Comment 9) : Um… look at that Bulls team and please tell me how many were born, raised and schooled in Pretoria, hardly any. In any case that is such a tired rebuttal from the dogmatic few who find it impossible to embrace change and move forward.
I used to really enjoy the Bulls before I turned blogger, now I cant stand nearly any of their supporters.
@MysticShark (Comment 11) : Oh boy, someone needs to find his way to a dentist and order a double dose of laughing gas. 😉
@robdylan (Comment 8) : I’m not saying it’s going to happen, but really believe that the bulls management should suffer some sort of consequence for their behavior toward their former senior players….
O do however remember 2010 all too well, where we lost our opening game to the tjietas, and then to the chiefs thanks to referee mr. brown…painful memories I tell ya’
@Original Pierre (Comment 2) : Bulls side should be:
15. Visser 14. Basson 13. JJ 12. Serfontein 11. Ulrich Beyers 10. Fouche 9. Hougaard 1. Marcel v/d Merwe 2. Visagie 3. Frik Kirsten 4. Willemse 5. Flip 6. Stegman 7. du Plessis 8. Spies
16. Mbonambi 17. Greyling 18. Kruger 19. Hattingh/Bulbring 20. Ross 21. v/Zyl 22. Pollard 23. Dries Swanepoel/Rohan Janse v/Rensburg
@Talent (Comment 13) : I’m not denying that plenty of players are not from the main region they play, Bulls – of course – as well as others.
What I am saying is the quality they have bought over the last couple of years is actually embarrassing for the most part.
@Saffex (Comment 16) : That is a much better side than the first. Respectable upfront with a good backline. I would prefer Liebenberg or Engelbrecht instead of du Plessis.
@Saffex (Comment 16) : @Blue Centurion (Comment 18) : Guess we`ll have to wait till tomorrow for confirmation.
It would be foolish t write off the Bulls! Dont be fooled by their Currie Cup results, they suffered a big setback with all their guys leaving but hav a lot of their bigger names back and will definitely put up a big challenge playing in SA- abroad i dont think as much tho. Our forwards will have to front up and not give away as many penalties as we did against Saracens. We have the team to win but rugby isnt played on paper…
Why isn’t anybody putting Matfield in their team 😯