Cape Town - Jake White was laying it on thick during his Bulls team announcement press conference on Friday, but in true fashion, he spoke a lot without saying anything.
Saturday’s United Rugby Championship showdown with the Stormers at Cape Town Stadium (2pm kickoff) is a potential South African Shield decider, and White knows it all too well.
The Stormers are sixth on the log with 43 points, and the Bulls are one behind, with the Sharks – who face the Lions in Durban today – a further point adrift. So, a victory in the Mother City would put the winner in charge of the SA group in the chase for quarter-final spots and European Champions Cup qualification.
It’s a big deal, and the fact that the Stormers beat the Bulls 30-26 at Loftus Versfeld in January means that the pressure is squarely on the men from Pretoria this time around.
They need to get revenge, as flank Cyle Brink said earlier in the week. But White was reluctant to say too much about the rugby on the pitch.
He poked fun at the Cape side for wanting to cite veteran hooker Bismarck du Plessis for what looked like a slap to the face or head of Western Province lock Ben-Jason Dixon in Wednesday night’s Currie Cup game.
“Isn’t it wonderful that a North-south Derby has got such spice in it again? Isn’t it wonderful that the reserve hooker that’s going to sit on my bench is getting more airtime and discussion time in a pre-game interview than the big game itself?” White smirked.
“You can’t take anything for granted, but there’s a massive amount of publicity for a guy whose… it’s all these shenanigans. Is he getting cited? I actually read an article where it says that Western Province want to cite Bismarck for a slap! It’s wonderful, wonderful that there is a bit of theatre behind the scenes.
“Let’s see what happens tomorrow. He’s going to run out and play, and I see the same guy who he supposedly slapped (Dixon) is on the (Stormers) bench – so who knows, maybe they’ll get to meet other again tomorrow afternoon, which will make it even more intriguing.”
As it turned out, Du Plessis received a three-match ban on Friday night for the incident, and has been replaced by Joe van Zyl on the Bulls bench.
Then the former Springbok coach took aim at Stormers boss John Dobson. “I read in the paper that they’ve got a full-blooded team. Everyone’s back from injury. I think Dobbo has been at the union for 12 years now. He’s got his whole coaching staff that is the most experienced coaching staff in the tournament.”
Brink said that the 30-26 Stormers win at Loftus was still hurting, yet White felt that there wasn’t anything “specific” that the Bulls needed to improve from that game today.
He did say, though, that the two sets of replacements will have a major influence on the result, and probably let slip that he wants his strike-runners such as Kurt-Lee Arendse, Madosh Tambwe and Canan Moodie heavily involved.
“We saw how they beat us the last time… They got a good start, so that is important: we’ve got to start well,” White said.
“They’ve got a certain style they play. We’ve got a certain style we play, and that’s what’s nice about tomorrow: to see who can get the styles right. I think a lot has been said about the scrum, and I also read this week that the pitch hasn’t played its part, as it doesn’t really allow for proper scrumming.
“The bench played a significant part in the last fixture we played, and I have no doubt that the bench will play a massive part in tomorrow afternoon’s game as well.
“We’ve played Ulster at two ’o clock and we did really well. We’ve got some exciting backs in Madosh, Kurt-Lee Arendse and obviously Canan Moodie, and the list goes on.
“We’re looking forward to see whether or not we can use those backs. I heard it’s going to be a nice day and the sun’s going to be out, and two ’o clock kickoff.
“Hopefully there will be people at the stadium, and there will be a nice vibe. It will be a good advert for South African rugby.”
Don’t miss it!
TEAMS FOR CAPE TOWN STADIUM
Stormers: 15 Damian Willemse 14 Seabelo Senatla 13 Ruhan Nel 12 Rikus Pretorius 11 Leolin Zas 10 Manie Libbok 9 Herschel Jantjies 8 Evan Roos 7 Hacjivah Dayimani 6 Deon Fourie 5 Marvin Orie 4 Adre Smith 3 Neethling Fouche 2 Scarra Ntubeni 1 Steven Kitshoff (captain).
Bench: 16 Chad Solomon 17 Brok Harris 18 Frans Malherbe 19 Connor Evans 20 Ben-Jason Dixon 21 Junior Pokomela 22 Paul de Wet 23 Sergeal Petersen.
Bulls: 15 Kurt-lee Arendse 14 Canan Moodie 13 Lionel Mapoe 12 Harold Vorster 11 Madosh Tambwe 10 Chris Smith 9 Zak Burger 8 Elrigh Louw 7 Cyle Brink 6 Marcell Coetzee (captain) 5 Ruan Nortje 4 Walt Steenkamp 3 Mornay Smith 2 Johan Grobbelaar 1 Gerhard Steenkamp.
Bench: 16 Joe van Zyl 17 Simphiwe Matanzima 18 Robert Hunt 19 Janko Swanepoel 20 Arno Botha 21 Keagan Johannes 22 Morné Steyn 23 Cornal Hendricks.