CHAMPIONS CUP PREVIEW: Bulls to make it a happy homecoming

The two teams that clash in an eagerly awaited Vodacom United Rugby Championship in Durban next weekend face very different scenarios as they head into their second round Investec Champions Cup games - the Hollywoodbets Sharks are comfortable whereas the Vodacom Bulls are far from that.

Bulls director of rugby Jake White will surely have read the riot act to his team after last week’s implosion against Storm Darragh…um, sorry, Saracens. It was as if they were playing against the storm with a name, they didn’t look like they wanted to be there, and what was disturbing wasn’t that they lost but how easily their challenge subsided. As they return to Loftus for the first time in what seems like ages, a player like Johan Goosen should be feeling the heat for non-performance a week ago.

While for the Bulls it is now a matter of survival in the competition, with an away defeat in the Champions Cup not in itself representing a crisis but the failure to pick up even a losing bonus point introducing the pressure, for the Sharks their game against Leicester Tigers at Welford Road is a chance to virtually assure themselves of their advance to the round of 16.

Only half the pool games would have been played come the end of the weekend, but getting to the last 16 effectively means you have to be in front of eight teams out of 24. So two wins plus maybe one more remaining bonus point would be enough for the Sharks - if they get across the line against Leicester, which is far from a gimme.

WIN WILL MAKE IT ADVANTAGE SHARKS

Someone wrote somewhere this week that winning away in the pool phase of the Champions Cup is like breaking serve in tennis - and that is exactly what it is. If you have held your serve in the previous game, of course, which is what the Sharks did when the picked up full points against Exeter Chiefs at Hollywoodbets Kings Park.

A Sharks win will confirm their arrival in a competition they last graced the season before last. Beaten quarterfinalists at the hands of Toulouse in their only other season in the Champions Cup, they struggled in their bread and butter competition, the URC. By finishing in the bottom half of the URC log, they had to win the EPCR Challenge Cup to ensure they could be part of the premier competition this year.

A positive home result is regarded as the bare minimum, which is why the DHL Stormers face so much jeopardy in the second round, and even a bonus point on the road is likened to striking gold, so tough is it to be successful away from home.

But the Sharks do have a team studded with marquee players, and even in the absence of the most capped Springbok Eben Etzebeth, who was concussed in last week’s game against the Chiefs, and a few others, they have the material to pose a threat to a Leicester Tigers team that is itself laden with international players.

POLLARD’S REMINDER

Double Bok World Cup winner Handre Pollard has been seen as the front of the Tigers challenge this week, and he reminded a press conference held in the buildup to the Welford Road game just how hard South Africans go at each other when they line up in opposing teams on the rugby field. Even the best of mates become sworn enemies when they go between the four white lines.

“We like playing against each other, we always go extra hard when we do,” said Pollard as he looked ahead to the clash with several of his Bok teammates, including the double World Cup winning captain Siya Kolisi.

There’s a lot of World Cup winners in the selection mix for the Sharks at Welford Road, where they will be up against a team that apart from Pollard also includes the world rated hooker and Los Pumas captain, Julian Montoya, as well as the likes of England internationals Freddie Steward, Dan Cole, Ben Youngs, Jack van Poorvliet, Tommy Reffell and Mike Brown.

What was clear on the opening weekend was that teams tend to lift themselves to something akin to test match intensity for Champions Cup games - but particularly so for home games. Leicester were away last week, where they lost to Bordeaux Begles, but Pollard and many of the other stars weren’t part of that team.

They will be on Saturday for apart from now needing the win following last week’s loss, they also know what they are up against.

“You want to measure yourself against the best in the world and that is what they are,” said Pollard of the Boks in the Sharks team.

JAKE’S MEN WILL FEEL THEY OWE SAINTS ONE

For the Bulls, it will be a case of measuring themselves against the best in England, as Northampton Saints arrive at Loftus as the reigning champions in the Gallagher Premiership. The Bulls will feel they owe Saints one after the good beating they received at their hands in last year’s quarterfinal, plus the fuss that was made over their decision to send an under-strength team.

There should be nothing under-strength about the Bulls on Saturday and while you sense White and his charges might take a win next week over the Sharks in the URC before a win in the Champions Cup if they were offered a choice, they won’t have any confidence for their visit to Durban if they don’t bounce back now from the Saracens humbling.

The afternoon heat and rarified atmosphere of the Highveld will be much more to the Bulls liking than what they experienced in England. The Bulls teams, even the mediocre ones from the past, always get their strut back when they play in front of their own fans and that should be anticipated from them in this game.

The Bulls’ Bok loosehead Gerhard Steenekamp has spoken about the need for him and his teammates to gain revenge, and as we have seen from him at both club and international level this year, he is a man who doesn’t spew words without backing them up. There’ll be several other Bulls players on a mission at Loftus, not the least of them Steenekamp’s front row partners Johan Grobbelaar and Wilco Louw.

If that trio get the bit between their teeth, with Cobus Wiese behind them plus the likes of Elrigh Louw, Cameron Hanekom and Marco van Staden, it could be a long night for the visitors in all aspects of forward play. Northampton like to run the ball so they will welcome the firm and hopefully dry (this is thunderstorm season on the highveld) underfoot conditions, but so will the apex Bulls backs like Willie le Roux and Canan Moodie.

STORMERS NOT REALLY UNDER PRESSURE

On the prima facie evidence you would say the South African team under the most pressure this weekend is the Stormers, but that is probably not the case given that the team that will be announced later on Friday for their clash with Harlequins is likely to be an under-strength one. Losing their first home game last week to Toulon was a mortal blow to their chances of advancing to the round of 16 for the third year in a row, and John Dobson and his men will have their eyes firmly on next week’s URC derby against the Emirates Lions.

It was always going to be thus, they haven’t suddenly decided on going under-strength just because of the Toulon defeat, but the loss in Gqeberha does arguably take away some of the pressure to pick up at least a losing bonus point. The URC does need to be the Stormers focus going forward or they will be playing in the EPCR Challenge Cup next season.

Having said that, if the Stormers do get their game going in the two Christmas derbies they can go all out in their two remaining Champions Cup games in January, when they should have most of their top players back, and perhaps sneak into the knock-outs through the back door.

The London game is an opportunity for the Stormers in the same way as a similar away fixture against Leicester Tigers was last year. In that game some of the players who were desperate to take a rare opportunity made their own statements and although they lost, their competitiveness at Welford Road was a turning point in the Stormers’ season. They went on from there to beat Toulon the following week before winning both their home festive week derbies against the Bulls and Sharks respectively.

Stormers director of rugby Dobson will be hoping for something similar to happen around the Stoop, but Stormers fans should be warned not to expect too much. Stormers defence coach Norman Laker has said the team is playing the game to win it, which of course he has to say, but even he will know that getting across the line as winners will be a freak result.

LIONS AND CHEETAHS LOOKING FOR BETTER

It wasn’t just in the Challenge Cup that the South African performance was a bit disappointing on the opening weekend of the EPCR competitions, it was the same with the Toyota Cheetahs, who were held to a draw, and the Emirates Lions in the Challenge Cup. The Lions were well beaten by the Ospreys but perhaps that was more a reflection of how the Lions regard the Challenge Cup, in other words as a development competition, than their ability. They went in with a very under-strength team, and their eyes too appear to be trained on next week’s URC derby in Cape Town.

The Sharks did show what can be gained from the Challenge Cup when they won it last season and thus qualified for Champions Cup, but the Lions probably don’t feel they need to go that route given how well their URC campaign has started.

The Cheetahs meanwhile should be motivated by the thought that a victory in their game late on Saturday night against Cardiff in the Welsh capital will be a good indicator that they would be up to URC standard if they played in that competition.

SECOND ROUND INVESTEC CHAMPIONS CUP FIXTURES (HOME TEAMS FIRST)

Sale v Racing 92 (Friday 22.00)

Castres v Munster (Friday 22.00)

Vodacom Bulls v Northampton Saints (Pretoria, Saturday 15.00)

Ulster v Bordeaux Begles (Saturday 17.15)

Leicester Tigers v Hollywoodbets Sharks (Saturday 19.30)

Leinster v Clermont Auvergne (Saturday 19.30)

Harlequins v DHL Stormers (Saturday 22.00)

La Rochelle v Bristol Bears Saturday 22.00)

Stade Francais v Saracens (Sunday 15.00)

Benetton v Bath (Sunday 15.00)

Toulon v Glasgow Warriors (Sunday 17.15)

Exeter Chiefs v Toulouse (Sunday 19.35)

EPCR CHALLENGE CUP

Edinburgh v Bayonne (Friday 22.00)

Montpellier v Ospreys (Saturday 15.00_

Zebre v Lyon (Saturday 15.00)

Emirates Lions v Pau (Johannesburg, Saturday 17.15)

Vannes v Gloucester (Saturday 19.30)

Cardiff Rugby v Toyota Cheetahs (Saturday 22.00)

Scarlets v Black Lion (Sunday 15.00)

Perpignan v Connacht (Sunday 15.00)

Newcastle Falcons v Dragons (Sunday 17.15)