Shark infested waters stand between Bulls and Italy

The Vodacom Bulls only need a bonus point in order to secure their passage to Italy for next week’s appetising Rainbow Cup final but their coach Jake White is too wily and experienced to not see the potential perils of taking that attitude to Durban.

The Jonsson King’s Park game is the only game being played locally in the final round of Rainbow Cup due to the Covid enforced cancellation of the scheduled game between the DHL Stormers and the Emirates Lions at Cape Town Stadium. The cancellation does not impact on the Rainbow Cup final prognosis because neither of the impacted protagonists were in the running.

But the Durban game between the Cell C Sharks and the Bulls is still on and will decide the South African representatives in the Rainbow Cup final to be played in Treviso, Italy the following week (19 June).

White would have told his charges that they need to go all out for victory against the Cell C Sharks at Jonsson King’s Park or risk having what has mostly been a perfect campaign ruined on the last day of the Rainbow Cup SA phase of the competition. For Durban is not a place you go to these days without full focus on chasing a win if you know what is good for you.

While the Bulls will start as strong favourites to achieve their objective and should be on the plane to Treviso on Monday night, there are a few things that should be unsettling for them. For a start, and perhaps the main reason for their concern, should be what you learn if you take a close look at the battles that have been played out between the Bulls and Sharks since the end of lockdown.

TWO TEAMS THAT BOAST ABOUT FORTRESSES

Yes, the Bulls are comfortably ahead in the win count-out between the sides that contested last year’s Currie Cup final. They’ve won four of the six matches played since last September, with the Sharks winning twice. Three of those Bulls wins have been by big margins, the most recent of them being the thrashing they delivered in the first round of this competition at Loftus four weeks ago.

But while the Bulls have won in Pretoria, it is actually a stalemate if you consider that both teams are strong on boastfulness when they are asked to talk about what their home ground means to them. The Sharks haven’t won in Pretoria since September, but neither have the Bulls won in Durban.

The Bulls were narrowly beaten in the King’s Park Currie Cup clash last December - you will recall Morne Steyn missing a penalty kick that would have drawn the game - and they thrashed the Bulls in the friendly preparation series clash, where admittedly the Bulls were well below full strength, two and a half months ago.

The DHL Stormers placed a dent on the Sharks’ supposed fortress when they won there three weeks ago, but for the Bulls it remains a place they haven’t won at since 2019. It will be recalled that the Sharks also won the first match of the last global Super Rugby competition at the start of last year, so for them it is actually now three games in a row they’ve won against the Bulls at King’s Park.

That’s something for them to be proud of in the sense that it comprehensively breaks what before that had been a long sequence of failure against the Bulls at any venue. The switch in momentum in the Durban games between the teams is not something the Bulls will be unaware of, and it is why White will have done a lot of work this week on ensuring there is no complacency in his camp. Give the Sharks a sniff and, like the fish they are named after, they will take it.

HOSTS USED TO HAVING ODDS STACKED AGAINST THEM

They have the odds stacked against them this week but then they had even bigger odds stacked against them before their game against the Emirates Lions last week, where they went in with a significantly understrength team but needing a bonus point win to keep alive any chance of topping the local log.

And thank goodness they did achieve that objective for the Covid situation that has presented Benetton with their place in the final without even having to play their final league fixture has turned the last round of the European stream of the competition into a dead rubber. Had the Sharks not won in Johannesburg, the Bulls might well have rested many of their first choice players for the Durban trip so they could be fresh for the final.

Instead, with playing for just one solitary bonus point not being an option, the Bulls do need to play to win, and in that sense this game is a proper semifinal.

Weekend previews and predictions

DHL Stormers v Emirates Lions (Cape Town, Saturday 16.00)

Match cancelled due to Covid protocols.

MARCELL COULD HURT HIS OLD TEAM

Cell C Sharks v Vodacom Bulls (Durban, Saturday 18.15)

Sharks coach Sean Everitt said he was sore about the prospect of seeing Marcell Coetzee running out at his old home ground as captain of the Bulls, and it is understandable. Everitt was heavily involved in the youth structures at the Sharks before taking his current job, and he remembers coaching Coetzee when, in his words, “he was at a little school called Port Natal.”

There’s another reason why Everitt should be feeling sore about Coetzee coming back to King’s Park though. If the Springbok and former Ulsterman was not in the Bulls line-up, the Sharks would have had a much better chance of achieving their objective of scoring the big win they need to qualify for the Treviso final. Particularly with Duane Vermeulen absent from the visiting team.

Normally you’d say Vermeulen’s influence on the Bulls is so immense that losing him is like losing three or four players, but Coetzee is the perfect replacement. And he is no stranger to No 8, having played much of his rugby for Ulster there. Having Coetzee and Marco van Staden playing in the same back-row makes a lethal combination for the Bulls, and it is the single biggest reason why it is hard to see the Sharks winning this game.

The second reason is that they are without their first-choice front-row, and Thomas du Toit in particular is always missed when he’s not there. It does appear there is a chance Ox Nche and Du Toit could play if the next tier of back-up props fail to pass their fitness tests later on Friday, and if that happens it will significantly improve the Sharks’ chances of winning.

If that happens though there should be more than just a small whiff of controversy in the air though as all the other franchises have adhered strictly to the Bok resting protocols.

With Ruan Nortje on the flank the Bulls won’t lack for physicality, they have Trevor Nyakane ready to come on as an impact sub, and they have two fetchers in the back-row ready to win the ball scavenging battle against a team that has not included a fetcher in their loose trio. The Sharks also lost the territory game against the Stormers and the Bulls are very good at the territory game, even away from altitude.

That’s why, regardless of the Sharks’ good home record, the Bulls should be flying to Italy on Monday.

Prediction: Bulls by 7