Bulls are gearing up for massive Glasgow battle - Nortje

The Vodacom Bulls are expecting a massive battle from Glasgow Warriors, but they won’t be shirking their own form to worry about what the opposition will bring to Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.

Co-captain Ruan Nortje acknowledged the good form the Vodacom United Rugby Championship log leaders are in as they head for Pretoria, but also that the Bulls are not going to stand back as they view every game now as a knockout match.

“Glasgow showed again and again how good they are. Overall they have a good game plan and play at a fast tempo, which catches a lot of teams off guard. It has brought them a lot of success over the past few years. The speed that they play with, they are one of those teams that score early and often are seven or 10 points up after five minutes,” Nortje explained.

“They make it difficult to recover against them, especially because of the quality they possess in their team.”

The Bulls know that Glasgow’s continued success at the top of the log means they need to get points in South Africa, and will be drawing from Munster’s success to make a big statement for the rest of the competition.

“We are expecting a massive battle. They are leading the competition for good reason, they have good players who have played together for a while now and they flourish as a team because they have good combinations and their coach Franco Smith has the right culture there. You have to give them credit for the way they play. For us, it is an exceptionally important game, and we know what we need to do until the end of the competition.

“For us, these are knockout games to the end, and we take every game with that mindset.”

FRUSTRATED AFTER MUNSTER LOSS

The Munster loss - the first in 21 games before the Bulls bounced back against the Ospreys, was a massive one for the Pretoria side, and Nortje, who didn’t play in the match, admits his teammates were frustrated by the negative play from the Irishmen.

“Against Munster, we allowed them to put us under pressure at times, they played very cleverly and slowed down play. It frustrated us a lot. We need to keep that control in our hands and we can’t allow the opposition to dictate it. At Loftus Versfeld, we want to play fast rugby and teams from overseas often want to make it a lot slower. They know how to get under our skin. So it will be a big test to stay calm and to stay in our game plan.”

With Glasgow coach Franco Smith knowing Loftus well, the Bulls have a plan to counter that, and that is simply to play the type of rugby that makes their home fans proud.

“Coach Franco knows Loftus and how to play here. From a player’s side, we told the players to focus on what we can do and what we can bring, and not to focus on them. It is important to not forget about what we want to do and how we can play when we execute well. We will be ready for everything and play the rugby that we can.”

Nortje’s hamstring injury, which saw him miss more than a month’s rugby was a “blessing in disguise” he believes as it has allowed him to refocus.

“It was frustrating. I was blessed the past few years when it comes to injuries. I won’t say it was good but it was a good thing from the point of view that I could reset and get myself physically and mentally to a good spot again,” Nortje said.

“It was the same injury that I had in December. And in the same leg, so I had already learnt a lot on how to manage it, manage the load on the leg and how I train to recover from it.”

And with him back at the helm this weekend, the Bulls are looking forward to taking another step towards the playoffs.