After being battered by Storm Darragh’s ferocious winds in London last weekend, the Vodacom Bulls are back on home soil determined to erase the memory and bounce back with a vengeance when they host Northampton Saints in the Investec Champions Cup clash at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.
Last week’s opener against Saracens was a literal storm to weather. The Bulls, led by a posse of heavyweight Springbok talent, struggled to navigate their way in gale-force conditions that blasted the length of StoneX Stadium.
Despite having the wind at their backs in the first half, the tourists failed to capitalise and went into halftime with just a solitary try on the board, courtesy of Willie le Roux’s pinpoint bridge pass to winger Sebastian de Klerk
The second half saw them pinned deep in their half, playing into the teeth of Darragh’s exhaust pipes and unable to escape the grip of a relentless Saracens side. The 27-5 defeat was a sobering reality check for a Bulls team that marched into the game on the back of a 28-14 win at Connacht in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship (URC), their fifth in six matches to claim third place on the table.
Saturday presents an opportunity for redemption in front of the partisan Loftus locals, where the comforts of a high-altitude stadium and balmy summer conditions are not the London tempest they endured last week.
However, the hosts won’t have an exclusive license in their appetite for redemption as the Saints arrive with plenty of firepower and their own statement to make.
Northampton opened their Investec Champions Cup campaign in style, smashing Castres Olympique and showing glimpses of the brilliance that earned them the 2023-24 Premiership title. But the Saints have stumbled this season in domestic play, suffering four defeats in their first seven matches to embark on the quest for European glory from eighth place on the Premiership standings.
A formidable team, Northampton is buoyed by the relentless drive of former DHL Stormers and SA Under-20 bruiser Juarno Augustus.
Nicknamed "Trokkie" [little truck] for his reputation as a heavy-duty ball-carrier for Tygerberg High School before joining Western Province and then being called up to the Junior Springboks in 2017.
The bulldozing No 8 has scored three tries in his last two outings for Saints, and his ability to continue carrying the load for Northampton will be decisive on Saturday.
Trokkie will be ably supported in this quest for ascendancy in the collisions by a teenage sensation that may have Augustus doing a double-take to ensure he’s not looking at his reflection in a mirror.
Banbury-born Henry Pollock, 19, measures in at similar dimensions to Augustus and was also a standout performer for his country’s junior stars, scoring a hat-trick against Italy on his England U20 debut.
Together, the Saints back-row duo will be decisive in countering a Bok-laden Bulls pack flush with proud ball-carriers.
The likes of Elrigh Louw and Cam Hanekom will be smarting from the loss at Saracens, a result that would have raised questions about the ferocity of the pack – an untenable seed of doubt for anyone in Bulls country.
Loftus Versfeld has long been a fortress for the Bulls, and they’ll need every ounce of that home advantage to subdue a Northampton side desperate to ignite their season.
It was the Bulls who were shown to be ill-prepared for the tempest that tore through London last week, but on Saturday they will be the ones asking the question: can Trokkie’s Saints handle the whirlwind at Loftus?