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Marais: We can beat any team

Pretoria – Blue Bulls coach Nollis Marais’ young crop of players may face their biggest challenge when they take on Western Province in their Currie Cup semi-final in Pretoria on Friday but he is trying not to make a fuss about it.

Marais said if the team were not able to beat the defending champions in a home semi-final then they did not deserve to feature in the final.

“The team is good enough to beat any team but they have to write their own history,” Marais said.

“We have a young team with 13 or 14 players that will be playing in their first Currie Cup semi-final but there is no reason a semi-final should be different to any other match.”

The Blue Bulls will play host to a semi-final for the first time since 2008 going up against Province who will be looking to qualify for their fourth consecutive final.

Bulls captain Lappies Labuschagne said the semi-final brought added pressure, but he believed the players were handling it well.

“There is additional pressure but when we started the campaign we set certain goals and we’ve come to this part of the stage where it is a semi-final and there are no guarantees,” Labuschagne said.

“This team has played its best rugby when we play the game as a unit and we enjoy it, we don’t want to depart from that.”

He said the main aim for the players was still to go out and enjoy themselves and cherish the fact that they would be playing in a semi-final.

“We want to enjoy the game and we do have brilliant individuals and our focus is to go out and play for each other, and our fans,” Labuschagne said.

“We need to relish this moment it is not every day you can play in a semi-final and we really want to make the most of it.”

Last year Western Province defeated the Bulls 31-23 in the semi-final before claiming the title.

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