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Matfield: Give Bulls time

Cape Town - Bulls captain Victor Matfield believes something special is brewing at Loftus Versfeld but asked fans to be patient.

The Bulls' 16-0 loss to the Stormers at Newlands last week ended their Super Rugby playoff hopes and left them languishing in 10th spot on the overall Super Rugby log.

Friday's final match against the Rebels will be of pure academic value, but Matfield said fans should not be left despondent as he believes better times await the Pretoria franchise.

"The Currie Cup is a good opportunity to improve. We've lost a lot experienced players over the past two seasons and there are brilliant young players in the team. These young guys could be the start of something special over the next six, seven seasons. Just it give it time," Matfield told the Beeld website.

Matfield said the young players would have gained a lot of experience from the past season which would stand them in good stead for the future.

He referred back to the 2002 season when the Bulls lost all 11 games in the-then Super 12. The core of that team went on to win the Super Rugby competition three times (2007, 2009 and 2010).

Friday's clash against the Rebels kicks off at 19:10.

Teams:

Bulls:

15 Jurgen Visser, 14 Bjorn Basson, 13 JJ Engelbrecht, 12 Jan Serfontein, 11 Francois Hougaard, 10 Handré Pollard, 9 Piet van Zyl, 8 Jacques Engelbrecht, 7 Jono Ross, 6 Roelof Smit, 5 Victor Matfield (captain), 4 Paul Willemse, 3 Marcel van der Merwe, 2 Bandise Maku, 1 Morné Mellet

Substitutes: 16 Callie Visagie, 17 Werner Kruger, 18 Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg, 19 Marvin Orie, 20 Jesse Kriel, 21 Jacques-Louis Potgieter, 22 William-Small Smith, 23 Dean Greyling

Rebels:

15 Jason Woodward, 14 Telusa Veainu, 13 Tamati Ellison, 12 Mitch Inman, 11 Tom English, 10 Jack Debreczeni, 9 Luke Burgess, 8 Colby Fainga'a, 7 Scott Fuglistaller (captain), 6 Luke Jones, 5 Cadeyrn Neville, 4 Hugh Pyle, 3 Laurie Weeks, 2 Shota Horie, 1 Toby Smith

Substtutes: 16 Pat Leafa, 17 Cruze Ah-Nau, 18 Paul Alo-Emile, 19 Lopeti Timani, 20 Jordy Reid, 21 Nic Stirzaker, 22 Lalakai Foketi, 23 Alex Rokobaro

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