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Pretoria - Blue Bulls coach Pine Pienaar has emphasised the need to score bonus point victories in their last two round-robin Currie Cup games.
This week, the men from Pretoria travel to Kimberley to take on Griquas at GWK Park.
It’s never easy at GWK Park, but the Blue Bulls will have to overcome the Kimberley-factor as well as a fired-up Griquas side if they are to keep their Currie Cup semi-final hopes alive.
Even though the Bulls have been relatively successful in the Northern Cape - they haven’t lost there in Currie Cup rugby since 30 June 2007 - their coach, Pine Pienaar, admitted that this could be one of their hardest matches of 2011.
The Bulls have lost Zane Kirchner to Rugby World Cup duty, but Pienaar has selected Dean Greyling (prop), Deon Stegmann (flank) and Akona Ndungane (wing), all three of them Springboks that have been missing due to injuries lately.
“The reality is that Griquas could still get past us on the log, so they have everything to play for as well. We will probably need 10 points from our last two games to stay in the play-off race, so it will be two pretty desperate teams taking on each other,” Pienaar said.
“It has always been a massive challenge to go and beat Griquas on their home patch and we will need all the experience we can get to do that. It is therefore very pleasing to welcome back the three Springboks to our team.”
Griquas welcome back their mercurial scrumhalf Sarel Pretorius this weekend. If he can replicate the form that saw him turn the game against the Leopards last weekend, the Blue Bulls will have their hands full with Pretorius.
Teams:
Griquas:
15 Rudi Vogt, 14 Dusty Noble, 13 Wilmaure Louw, 12 Matthew Rosslee, 11 Rocco Jansen, 10 Riaan Viljoen, 9 Sarel Pretorius, 8 Leon Karemaker, 7 Justin Downey, 6 Jonathan Mokuena (captain), 5 George Earle, 4 Hendrik Roodt, 3 Lourens Adriaanse, 2 Ryno Barnes, 1 Ivann Espag
Substitutes: 16 Simon Westraadt, 17 Steph Roberts, 18 Jaco Nepgen, 19 Burger Schoeman, 20 Marnus Hugo, 21 Earl Rose, 22 Monty Dumond/Fabian Juries
Blue Bulls:
15 Gerhard van Heever, 14 Akona Ndungane, 13 Wynand Olivier, 12 Francois Venter, 11 Bjorn Basson, 10 Louis Fouche, 9 Jano Vermaak, 8 CJ Stander, 7 Jacques Potgieter, 6 Deon Stegmann, 5 Juandre Kruger, 4 Flip van der Merwe, 3 Werner Kruger, 2 Gary Botha (captain), 1 Dean Greyling
Substitutes: 16 Willie Wepener, 17 Frik Kirsten, 18 Gerrit-Jan van Velze, 19 Arno Botha, 20 Dustin Jinka, 21 Francois Brummer, 22 Warwick Tecklenburg
This week, the men from Pretoria travel to Kimberley to take on Griquas at GWK Park.
It’s never easy at GWK Park, but the Blue Bulls will have to overcome the Kimberley-factor as well as a fired-up Griquas side if they are to keep their Currie Cup semi-final hopes alive.
Even though the Bulls have been relatively successful in the Northern Cape - they haven’t lost there in Currie Cup rugby since 30 June 2007 - their coach, Pine Pienaar, admitted that this could be one of their hardest matches of 2011.
The Bulls have lost Zane Kirchner to Rugby World Cup duty, but Pienaar has selected Dean Greyling (prop), Deon Stegmann (flank) and Akona Ndungane (wing), all three of them Springboks that have been missing due to injuries lately.
“The reality is that Griquas could still get past us on the log, so they have everything to play for as well. We will probably need 10 points from our last two games to stay in the play-off race, so it will be two pretty desperate teams taking on each other,” Pienaar said.
“It has always been a massive challenge to go and beat Griquas on their home patch and we will need all the experience we can get to do that. It is therefore very pleasing to welcome back the three Springboks to our team.”
Griquas welcome back their mercurial scrumhalf Sarel Pretorius this weekend. If he can replicate the form that saw him turn the game against the Leopards last weekend, the Blue Bulls will have their hands full with Pretorius.
Teams:
Griquas:
15 Rudi Vogt, 14 Dusty Noble, 13 Wilmaure Louw, 12 Matthew Rosslee, 11 Rocco Jansen, 10 Riaan Viljoen, 9 Sarel Pretorius, 8 Leon Karemaker, 7 Justin Downey, 6 Jonathan Mokuena (captain), 5 George Earle, 4 Hendrik Roodt, 3 Lourens Adriaanse, 2 Ryno Barnes, 1 Ivann Espag
Substitutes: 16 Simon Westraadt, 17 Steph Roberts, 18 Jaco Nepgen, 19 Burger Schoeman, 20 Marnus Hugo, 21 Earl Rose, 22 Monty Dumond/Fabian Juries
Blue Bulls:
15 Gerhard van Heever, 14 Akona Ndungane, 13 Wynand Olivier, 12 Francois Venter, 11 Bjorn Basson, 10 Louis Fouche, 9 Jano Vermaak, 8 CJ Stander, 7 Jacques Potgieter, 6 Deon Stegmann, 5 Juandre Kruger, 4 Flip van der Merwe, 3 Werner Kruger, 2 Gary Botha (captain), 1 Dean Greyling
Substitutes: 16 Willie Wepener, 17 Frik Kirsten, 18 Gerrit-Jan van Velze, 19 Arno Botha, 20 Dustin Jinka, 21 Francois Brummer, 22 Warwick Tecklenburg
