Bulls coach Nollis Marais is dealing with a heavy injury toll at the moment and has been forced to name inexperienced players in a number of key positions for Friday’s Super Rugby game against the Sharks.
One area in which the Bulls will be strong, though, is midfield, with the in-form Test centre pairing of Jan Serfontein and Jesse Kriel sure to cause a few headaches for their hosts, who have themselves been disrupted by injuries in the middle of the backline. The Bulls boast further test experience in the form of hooker (and captain) Adriaans Strauss and scrumhalf Rudy Paige, but look rather thin elsewhere.
Injuries to Trevor Nyakane and Lood de Jager see a debutant (Conraad van Vuuren) start at tighthead prop and a young lock combination in RG Snyman and Jason Jenkins. Nic de Jager will ply number 8 in place of injured Hanru Liebenberg, while Tony Jantjies enjoys a first career start at flyhalf. Wingers Duncan Matthews and Kefentse Mahlo are also both inexperienced, with the latter on debut.
Bulls: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Duncan Matthews, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Jan Serfontein, 11 Kefentse Mahlo, 10 Tony Jantjies, 9 Rudy Paige, 8 Nic de Jager, 7 Jannes Kirsten , 6 Ruan Steenkamp, 5 RG Snyman , 4 Jason Jenkins, 3 Conraad van Vuuren, 2 Adriaan Strauss (captain), 1 Pierre Schoeman.
Replacements: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 Lizo Gqoboka , 18 John Roy Jenkins, 19 Shuan Adendorff, 20 Renaldo Bothma, 21 Andre Warner , 22 Burger Odendaal, 23 Tian Schoeman
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I am 98% certain that the Sharks won’t lose to this team by a big margin.
Sharks will either win/lose by a tight margin, or win by a big margin.
@FireTheLooser (Comment 1) : I agree with your uncertainty.
With Kriel at 13 the Bulls wings won’t see much ball, but he will be a handful with ball in hand.
@FireTheLooser (Comment 1) : Sharks absolutely needs to go for an all-out attacking approach. We have got nothing to lose, only plenty to gain. Should be an exciting game. Just hope out handling and discipline does not cost us in this game.
Good opportunity for Andre to show he”s stuff. Or maybe Jan will teach him a thing or two. Definitely looking forward to this one!
Shouldn’t they rather be given a break? Bulls have zero chance of making play-offs.
How certain are we that Jesse cuts the defensive mustard at outside centre? Would love to read some thoughts on this. Paging Fyndraai.
@vanmartin (Comment 7) : He has good attributes to play there but needs time in the position to continue to grow. Its one of the tougher defensive positions and also requires soft deceptive handling on attack- both aspects will improv the more he is in that position. He is a seriously fit and strong guy and has good pace and likes to run straight and does look for work. So yeh for me he can cut the mustard- but just needs continuity there.
@vanmartin (Comment 7) : just keeping Lukhanyo’s jersey warm mate. Don’t get too excited about him
@vanmartin (Comment 7) :
I can’t say much because I stopped watching Bulls games back in March. Largely because their wide defence was a mess. I believe that this was a function of the system rather than the induviduals though.
I’m glad that Serfontein was able to showcase his talents in the Tests. Nollis and the gang will make the AB backline look like palookas.
@fyndraai (Comment 10) : I think Nollis is the first person associated with the Bulls that I’ve ever really appreciated…
Who names their child Nollis anyway?
@SheldonK (Comment 8) : if Andre can get similar fitness he would be able shift his game to another level
@McLovin (Comment 12) : they had a prop called Hencus as well
@robdylan (Comment 14) : Those boertjies can come up with some real crackers. Especially when they combine bits from about seventeen different family members’ names into one.
@robdylan (Comment 9) : While I think Am has been brilliant this year, and deserves a shot with the Boks, to say that a 2015 RWC veteran who played well in the two matches he played against the French is just keeping the jersey warm for Am is a little premature, no?
@robdylan (Comment 14) : Ha, love that name, reminds me of a town about 160 kms from me called “Henricus at Dutch Gap”. Yes, that is the name of the town.
😯
@Dancing Bear (Comment 16) : no, not at all. I don’t rate guys who don’t play for the Sharks, so it makes it easy for me 🙂
@FireTheLooser (Comment 1) : Not ambiguous at all.
@vanmartin (Comment 7) : How do you know SA teams? These nothing to lose teams very often the biggest threat.
@McLovin (Comment 15) : Or surnames for firstnames like du toit Viljoen or burger odendaal or Steyn du Plessis.
@robdylan (Comment 18) : As a scholar at Martizburg College, Jesse Kriel was definitely a Natal boy!
😈
@Dancing Bear (Comment 22) : yeah, but he chose the dark side. It was he who chose that path, not me.
@Dancing Bear (Comment 17) :
My favorite town name in the US is Show Low, AR.
Some years ago I had regular business in the area. It is much better than the name implies. I’d move there in a heartbeat, but I won’t live on Deuce of Clubs.
This from wikipedia
According to a legend, the city’s unusual name[5][6] resulted from a marathon poker game between Corydon E. Cooley and Marion Clark.The two men were equal partners in a 100,000-acre (400 km2) ranch; however, the partners determined that there was not enough room for both of them in their settlement, and agreed to settle the issue over a game of “Seven Up” (with the winner taking the ranch and the loser leaving). After the game seemed to have no winner in sight, Clark said, “If you can show low, you win.” In response, Cooley turned up the deuce of clubs (the lowest possible card) and replied, “Show low it is.”[7] As a tribute to the legend, Show Low’s main street is named “Deuce of Clubs” in remembrance.[6]
@vanmartin (Comment 7) : Simple…he doesn’t cut it…
@pastorshark (Comment 25) :
@McLovin (Comment 12) :
Same people who name their child Rassie.
Or Moaner.
How ’bout Hempies?
Tolla
Beast
Ox
Chilliboy
@fyndraai (Comment 27) :
Kabous
Domkrag
Vleis
Piston
@fyndraai (Comment 24) : Two towns in Missouri, Tightwad and Peculiar. Yep, real names, every single business in Tightwad is named Tightwad… So the local bank is Tightwad Bank, grocery store Tightwad Grocery. People opened accounts at Tightwad Bank just to have checks that say Tightwad Bank.
Peculiar got its name while being incorporated, town founders could not think of a name so sent the request for incorporation to the State Legislature and asked them to come up with the town name, but they should make it somewhat peculiar.
@Dancing Bear (Comment 29) :
Ha.
I guess at the time, the Legislature thought it was funny. Now it’s just peculiar.
Somewhat like my username.
@MysticShark (Comment 28) : @MysticShark (Comment 28) : What about, Baksteen Nel, Boom Prinsloo 😆
@fyndraai (Comment 30) : There’s a little place east of Pretoria on the R25 (between Bapsfontein and Kleinfontein) called Welbekend, which is basically just a police station and a petrol garage with a kuka shop, surrounded by farmland. However, that was not always its name – it used to be called Onbekend.
Back in the day, the police stations’s post used to be sent to central Pretoria and then delivered to Onbekend via bicycle. Everything ran smoothly and the post made it there roughly every day except Mondays. That all changed when the postal system modernised and the station got its own postal address. Their mail simply stopped reaching them.
Apparently the geniuses at the sorting station would mark all their mail as undeliverable because the address showed as Onbekend. No amount of complaining and/or and training made any difference – so after lots of frustration, committees and boards of enquiry they gave up and got the name changed to Welbekend. 😆
Until very recently the sign outside the police station still welcomed one to Onbekend Polisiestasie.
@Spirit of Rugby (Comment 32) : Kuka shop. 😆 havent heard that word for a while.
@Salmonoid the Subtle (Comment 33) : I couldn’t think of a more apt description. We had a small farm just down the road and that little shop reminded me a helluva lot of the structures all along the C46, except it wasn’t called Love Station No 1 or Jamaica Inn. 😆
@Salmonoid the Subtle (Comment 33) : Brings back memories of sunlight soap and canned pilchards.