History may favour the DHL Stormers ahead of their Vodacom United Rugby Championship derby against the Vodacom Bulls in Cape Town on Saturday, but luckily Bulls coach Jake White says he isn’t superstitious.
White said the team had thought of changing hotels to mix things up and try something different, but with the Mining Indaba and SONA on in Cape Town this week, the choices were limited, so they stuck to their original plan.
But on the field you can be sure the Bulls will try something different, especially as they look to try and combat the lopsided results column since the URC began.
The Bulls have won just once - the last fixture at Loftus Versfeld - in the URC against the Stormers and haven’t tasted success since the Rainbow Cup in Cape Town.
That is something they want to reverse this weekend. And while White knows the Stormers are likely to be “desperate”, given their log position, the Bulls are just as desperate to get a win in Cape Town.
“We also want to be desperate to win. We want to finish as high up as we can because we know what home ground advantage means in the back end of the competition and therefore we need to win these games as well. It's going to be an interesting clash and I'm looking forward to it,” White said.
On the hotel, White said it was an idea, but it didn’t work out.
“We just thought maybe there might be a way to change the stimulus a little bit. I'm not superstitious at all because we've never played the Stormers in the first week in February when we were third on the log and they were 12th. We've never played the Stormers when we haven't had a 10 that we can start with.
“We've never played the Stormers without their No 1 lock and their No 1 full-back, Damien Willemse,” White explained.
“To be superstitious and go, we need to change this, we need to change that because it's not working. As I said, the venue is probably the same but it's a completely different game.”
White was asked if this derby is tougher than playing overseas, and reflected on the way the derby games influence the SA conference, which the Bulls want to defend this season.
“They both have their challenges. It would be wrong for me to say playing at home is easier than playing away when you have big derby games. The thing about derby games is that they are like double points, because you are in the same conference, and getting a win against someone in your conference is like getting a double win.
“For every conference the derbies are tough. Historically though, the Stormers against the Bulls or WP facing the Bulls is the measurement of where South African rugby is in every year.
“Thats what is so nice about derbies, we have been in that position as well. We’ve played them in the past few years and we’re talking about games where we were also desperate and we never got a win.
“Saying that, I said to someone coming here, that when the Stormers v Bulls is the big game of the year, then we are doing our jobs. Then we are doing something right. The day people don’t talk about the north-south derby as the big one, means we aren’t doing our jobs.
“I hear that there are 40 000 tickets sold and that makes me happy, because it means that people still see this derby as one of the big clashes in the calendar.
“We also want to be desperate to win, we also want to finish higher and we know what home ground advantage means at the back end of the competition and therefore these games mean a lot to us as well.
“It will be an interesting clash and I’m looking forward to it.”
The Bulls will name their side for the clash on Friday.