J.J. Harmse

Pretoria – The Bulls may have been given the week off, but the team’s brains trust has still been mulling over a few important issues in the wake of their defeat to the Highlanders.

Not even the bachelor party and wedding of former team-mate Pedrie Wannenberg could make the leadership core in the team forget about rugby or allow them to switch off. The defeat against the Highlanders simply left too bitter a taste in the mouth.

Victor Matfield and Dewald Potgieter have both indicated that they can’t wait to get back onto the field and put things right.

Potgieter wrote in his weekly column on SuperSport.com that he would never again view a match at Loftus Versfeld as a given. He revealed that a group of players had already met at the home of scrumhalf Fourie du Preez the day after the match to discuss the defeat.

“Games like that happen, but we all agreed that we would have won had we been just 5% better. We will return to Loftus Versfeld next week with the promise to ourselves to never again take a match there for granted,” wrote Potgieter.

It was his first defeat at the Bulls’ home ground since making his debut there for the team in 2008.

“I also want to apologise to the spectators that we let them down. We will put it right, we promise,” said Potgieter.

Matfield tweeted that he had only slept for three hours on Saturday night because he constantly replayed the match in his head. He was more positive later in the week.

“I can’t wait to get back on the field on Monday. We have a lot to fix,” said Matfield.

Fortunately for the Bulls captain there are a lot of reinforcements on the way.

Bakkies Botha, Gary Botha and Francois Hougaard will all be fit for the next game against the Stormers at Loftus Versfeld.

Hougaard is the only man not to have played this year, but coach Frans Ludeke must be satisfied with the fitness of his utility back as he has not made him available for the Blue Bulls’ game against the Pampas in the Vodacom Cup on Saturday.

The Blue Bulls team: Clayton Blommetjies, Akona Ndungane, Stefan Watermeyer, Louis Fouché, Sampie Mastriet, Francois Brummer, Ruan Snyman, CJ Stander, Tendayi Chikukwa, Okkie Kruger Juandre Kruger (capt), Mthunzi Mabeta, Rossouw de Klerk, Zane Botha, Dean Greyling.

Substitutes: Henri Bantjes, Corné Fourie, Cornell Hess, Marnus Schoeman, Dustin Jinka, Marnitz Boshoff, Pieter van der Walt.