We are one-and-a-half months on from the Vodacom URC final in Dublin and it feels like on the eve of the Vodacom Bulls’ next game since that disappointing capitulation to Leinster that the same questions should be posed that were posed before Croke Park.
The All Blacks are visiting Loftus for their final match before the real business of the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry Series kicks off down the road in Johannesburg next weekend and on paper the Bulls certainly have the capability to subject the tourists to a much sterner test than the one that the young and inexperienced Hollywoodbets Sharks team did on Tuesday night.
Unlike the Sharks, who were not just denuded of the Boks who are in camp with Rassie Erasmus but also some experienced players mainly lost to the perennial Sharks blight of soft tissue injuries, the Bulls team that will line up against the changed up All Black team does have an experienced spine.
Marcell Coetzee is an excellent and experienced leader who apart from playing for the Springboks has also been a stalwart of the Sharks and Ulster before his move to Pretoria and he has two capable and experienced players alongside him in the back row in the form of Hanro Liebenberg and Jeandre Rudolph.
VAN HEERDEN CAN MAKE A STATEMENT
JF van Heerden makes his first appearance for the senior Bulls team in quite a while. He is a former national age-group captain and a player who has a promising future.
His way was blocked before by the presence of Ruan Nortje, who apart from currently being at the Boks is also headed to Japan next season. This is Van Heerden’s chance to lay down his marker as Nortje’s replacement at No 5.
Ruan Vermaak started ahead of current Bok Cobus Wiese in the second row for much of the last URC season, while at the back Embrose Papier is at the venue where he scored an impressive try in his return test match against Scotland before being discarded from the national group.
Willie le Roux at fullback is a player the All Blacks may have heard of and Curwin Bosch is a potential match winner and the All Blacks might be surprised by the distance he can get with both his field and goal-kicks.
What would be a pleasant surprise to South Africans who got to watch him regularly when he played for the Sharks would be if this game shows that his stint playing club rugby in France has improved the physical aspects of his game.
He had little appetite for defence before, but against the All Blacks everyone needs to tackle if they are to be pushed, as the Stormers showed for 68 minutes last week in Cape Town.
A DIFFERENT DEFENSIVE SYSTEM TO ONE STORMERS EMPLOYED
The mention of tackles cues the biggest concern, and this should possibly be the case as much for the All Blacks as the Bulls and South African supporters, which is the one we had before the URC final - it would probably be good for the All Blacks to be tested with a similar press defensive system employed by the Stormers, and it could just give their opponents a chance of winning.
However, as we noted before Croke Park, the Stormers and Bulls apply very different defensive systems. Which explained why the Stormers took Leinster out of their comfort zone in their semifinal at the AVIVA Stadium a fortnight before the final whereas the Bulls never came close and were an abysmal flop.
The Bulls’ defence tends to be passive, which is something the Kiwis will be used to from Super Rugby, and it will allow them to thrive. Yes, just like Leinster did on that Friday night before the Boks started their 2026 campaign against the Barbarians in Gqeberha.
BOKS MIGHT BE IN TWO MINDS ABOUT WHAT IS NEEDED
It is a situation that as a South African you might be in two minds about. It would be great for the Bulls to make a statement on behalf of SA rugby, which would depend on them having reinvented their defensive system in the weeks of pre-season they’ve had so far.
But at the same time, maybe it’s better for the Bok chances if the comfort zone that the tourists might have started to inhabit after their light hearted romp against the Sharks was retained.
For the Boks will bring a very intense and physical press defence to next Saturday’s game, even more physical and intense than that which took the All Blacks out of their comfort zone for much of the DHL Stadium game that started the tour.
Of course there are very few of the All Blacks lining up on Saturday who will be expecting to line up again at Ellis Park, but the Bulls can nonetheless ask questions of the game plan the Kiwis intend applying in Johannesburg.
BULLS PLAYING KIWIS AT OWN GAME COULD BACKFIRE
On the basis of what we saw from the Bulls in the URC and Champions Cup seasons, we can expect something quite different to what the All Black coaches have been complaining about ad infinitum, meaning the perception the local sides are out to slow the ball and the game down.
Coach Johan Ackermann likes his teams to play high tempo, expansive rugby. Almost to a fault. So for that matter do the Lions, who the All Blacks face in their final tour game a few days after the first test.
So there’s unlikely to be much slowing the game down that the Kiwis are unhappy with, unless of course leopards can suddenly change their spots. Which might be a good idea for the Bulls considering most of the players have been in off-season, something that some New Zealand pundits who follow the line of the All Black management seem unaware of.
Saturday’s game will be interesting, a Bulls commitment to attacking rugby and high tempo rugby might well play into the All Black hands. But after this the phoney war is over, the real stuff begins. The Boks are waiting and they haven’t been in an off-season.
TEAMS FOR LOFTUS
Vodacom Bulls: Willie le Roux, Thaakir Abrahams, Stedman Gans, Harold Vorster, Stravino Jacobs, Curwin Bosch, Embrose Papier, Jeandre Rudolph, Hanro Liebenberg, Marcell Coetzee (captain), JF van Heerden, Ruan Vermaak, Francois Klopper, Juann Else, Alulutho Tshakweni. Replacements: Juandre Schoeman, Sti Sithole, Khutha Mchunu, Reinhardt Ludwig, Mpilo Gumede, Paul de Wet, Katlego Letebele, Hakeem Kunene.
All Blacks: Beauden Barrett, Leroy Carter, Rieko Ioane, Anton Lienert-Brown, Josh Moorby, Josh Jacomb, Cortez Ratima, Peter Lakai, Anton Segner, Simon Parker, Patrick Tuipoluto, Fabian Holland, Tyrel Lomax, Codie Taylor, Xavier Numia. Replacements: Reserves: Samisoni, Tuakei’aho, George Bower, Siale Lauaki, Josh Lord, Wallace Sititi, Kyle Preston, Timoci Tavatavanawai, Emoni Narawa.
Referee: Nika Amashukeli (Georgia).
Kick-off: 7pm Saturday
Prediction: All Blacks to win by 20