Believe it or not, this is the only cross-conference game of the entire round.
The Bulls have suffered a late injury setback, with Jurgen Visser ruled out due to a foot injury. Ulrich Beyers comes in at fullback.
Kick-off is at 11h40 SA time.
Waratahs: 15 Israel Folau, 14 Cam Crawford, 13 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 12 Kurtley Beale, 11 Rob Horne, 10 Bernard Foley, 9 Nick Phipps, 8 Dave Dennis (captain), 7 Michael Hooper, 6 Jacques Potgieter, 5 Kane Douglas, 4 Will Skelton, 3 Sekope Kepu, 2 Tatafu Polota Nau, 1 Benn Robinson.
Replacements: 16 Tolu Latu, 17 Jeremy Tilse, 18 Paddy Ryan, 19 Pat McCutcheon, 20 Wycliff Palu, 21 Brendan McKibbin, 22 Jono Lance, 23 Matt Carraro.
Vodacom Bulls: 15 Ulrich Beyers, 14 Bjorn Basson, 13 Johannes Engelbrecht, 12 Jan Serfontein, 11 Francois Hougaard, 10 Jacques-Louis Potgieter, 9 Pieter van Zyl, 8 Grant Hattingh, 7 Jacques du Plessis, 6 Jono Ross, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Phillip van der Merwe (captain), 3 Werner Kruger, 2 Callie Visagie, 1 Dean Greyling.
Replacements: 16 Mbongeni Mbonambi, 17 Marcel van der Merwe, 18 Paul Willemse, 19 Jacques Engelbrecht, 20 William Small-Smith, 21 Handré Pollard, 22 Rudy Paige, 23 Morné Mellet.
Tweet
Don’t want to sound negative but I can’t see the Bulls beating Tahs today.
@JD (Comment 1) : I cant decide who I want to lose more, Bulls because I just don’t like them, or Tahs because they high on the log…..A draw would be nice!
Well the Tahs have not beaten Bulls in 9 years and must say if they don’t do it tonight I think they never will.
So um it took Folau 28 seconds to score a try…..
Try to Tahs after 28sec. Tahs 7-0.
This could just get very ugly for the Bulls
@Seth101 (Comment 2) : yes been checking the log and working out which result would be best for the Sharks. Yes a draw would be nice but I do think the Bulls going to get a hiding today.
@Seth101 (Comment 6) : hell the field looks sh!t !!!!!
@JD (Comment 8) : Yea, well it seams to be holding up fine,but it is very patchworkey. Something about they couldn’t find matching turf to lay.
Bulls making lots of mistakes.
@Seth101 (Comment 9) : the dark patches are really getting ripped upped at scrums.
Tahs 10-0.
I would be interested to see if any of the Southern hemisphere teams start using synthetic turf. Would do wonders for the dryer field, like Bloem.
Tahs getting away with some ugly stuff at the moment.
See there’s Royalty at the game with Prince William.
Bulls trying to do what the Sharks did, playing players out of position, so far I think its worked better for the Sharks!
Tahs 13-0. Bulls making mistakes in kickable positions.
@JD (Comment 15) : I find it the most ridicules thing, the only reason they are in Aus is to try gain support. To think that a country can still be a constitutional monarchy of a royal family from another country, it stupid!
@Seth101 (Comment 16) : yes but playing 3 big locks will never work, Bulls forwards is to slow!!!!!
@JD (Comment 19) : Lol I was talking more about Ulrich Beyers at full back, but sure 😛
@Seth101 (Comment 18) : hell don’t tell that to the lot of NZ and Oz they love Prince William and Kate.
Basson really is an awful defender.
@Seth101 (Comment 20) : must say Beyers looking better than the rest of the Bulls backs, but then again that does not meen that he’s playing good.
So van Zyl replaces by Paige.
@Seth101 (Comment 22) : all he can do is catch and run.
Taks 13-0 after 33min. Easy kick missed by Tahs.
Tahs 13-3. Bulls not totally out of this game.
I think the Bulls cab consider themselves lucky going into half time with the score line this small.
Tahs getting nailed now. Tahs 13-6 at half time.
@Seth101 (Comment 28) : Bulls might just surprise us all today. They’re still in this game.
58 secs into 2nd half and the Bulls give away another penalty. Too slow to the breakdown methinks ouch now penalty to the Bulls!
Bulls and ref looking better in the second half.
Tahs 16-9 after 45min. JLP kicking good. Beale replaced.
Come on Bulls!!!
Bad call by JLP to try drop goal. Bulls looked good on attack and now they’re back in their own half.
@rhineshark (Comment 34) : Bulls all over Tahs at the moment.
5m scrum for Bulls. Real change to score.
Tahs 13-9. Bad play by the Bulls almost costing them.
@JD (Comment 36) : But making way too many errors.
@rhineshark (Comment 39) : yes but luckily for them the Tahs not playing well enough to make them pay. With 20 odd minutes to go they’re only 4 points behind.
@JD (Comment 40) : Jip, this game reminds me a lot of the Sharks/Lions game of last Saturday.
Tahs 16-9.
Flip doing a good job as captain.
@rhineshark (Comment 41) : yes let’s hope the Bulls can do the same as the Sharks.
@JD (Comment 44) : Not looking likely. Tahs are all over the Bulls atm and a yellow card isn’t going to help.
Bulls down to 14 men. Really ugly tackle by Hattingh. Tahs now 19-9 ahead. Could this be the end of the Bulls challenge? !?!
Let’s hope the weird 14-man ascendancy, which sometimes happens after a card, suddenly kicks in for the Bulls.
@rhineshark (Comment 45) : yip with 14 men they’ll need to play out of their skins to do it.
I won’t be surprised if Heyneke starts Potgieter at 7 for the Boks.
@rhineshark (Comment 47) : don’t see it happening as it seems the Bulls are running on empty.
@rhineshark (Comment 49) : I would like to see Louw at 6 and Marcell at 7.
@JD (Comment 50) : I wouldn’t write them off… 😀
@rhineshark (Comment 52) : times running out. Only 7 min to go. To many mistakes by the Bulls.
@JD (Comment 51) : Jip, but we’re talking about Heyneke. We’ll probably see Louw, Potgieter and Vermeulen with Flip and Matfield at lock.
@rhineshark (Comment 54) : yes but must say Marcell has been huge this year.
Tahs getting away with murder at the breakdown.
Tahs 19-12.
@rhineshark (Comment 54) : about the locks sorry to say not many other locks to choose from as most of the contenders are out injured.
@JD (Comment 55) : Yes, he’s back to the form, which made him a Bok.
@JD (Comment 58) : True.
Do nearly got the perfect result!
And that’s all she wrote. Bulls lose 19-12 but can’t help to feel Bulls could have beaten the Tahs if they only made less mistakes on attack.
@Seth101 (Comment 61) : yes but think the Bulls did not help themselves with all the mistakes.
Now for the big one!!! Sharks can move 13 points ahead of Bulls with a game less played. If Stormers then beat the Lions the Sharks would really be in command of SA log.
On the Cell C Community Cup Roses United leading 36-31 Old Selbornians