JJ Harmse

Pretoria – A year ago, Dries van Schalkwyk played so well against the Blue Bulls that they offered him a contract. At the time, the 24-year-old was playing for Boland.

On Friday he will play for the Bulls against the Cavaliers in a Currie Cup encounter at Loftus Versfeld.

The No 8 is enjoying his stay in Pretoria. The former Boland player appreciates the Bulls coaches' attention to detail and says that has made a huge difference to his game already.

"Attention is paid to the finer details and finally it makes a big difference," he said on the Bulls website.

"The Blue Bulls players are also spiritually very strong and the coaches always support them 100 percent. I regularly have individual sessions with the coaches during which they pay attention to my game. Then they show me what I did right and wrong."

"It gives you a lot of self-confidence – with so much support you can go a long way."

He says he strives towards working harder on the field.

"I would like to improve on my work tempo. I'd like to carry the ball more and chase kicks."

Van Schalkwyk along with Gerrit-Jan van Velze and Jacques Burger will make up the loose forwards and the trio will be only too aware of the substitutes Pedrie Wannenburg and Deon Stegmann's  eagerness to take the field.

The Bulls backs will tries to be more fluent than last week against the Sharks.

Burton Francis's return at flyhalf will be watched closely, because it is important for the Bulls' Golden Cup aspirations that Francis is fit and on form.

A bonus point is not negotiable but the Bulls coach Frans Ludeke, said they won't count their chickens before they've hatched.

"Today we have to take the right options and give attention to detail. We are chasing that bonus point but it will come by itself if we are accurate," said the coach.

Boland have made a lot of changes, but it shouldn't affect the outcome. There are, however, a number of players in the visiting team that used to play rugby in Pretoria.

Llewellyn Adonis, Dewey Swartbooi, Danie van der Merwe and Ernie Kruger have all played for the Bulls at some stage and will want to prove their worth to the Bulls management.