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Pretoria - This Saturday's Super Rugby clash between the Stormers and Bulls at Newlands will be "war".
That is the view of Bulls coach Nollis Marais, who was speaking ahead of his side's tournament opener in Cape Town.
The Bulls have not won at Newlands since 2011, while they did beat the Stormers at Loftus in 2016.
Marais spoke on Thursday about his relationship with Stormers coach Robbie Fleck and breakdown specialist John Dobson, but he was under no illusions about what this fixture meant to both sides.
"Robbie is a good 'oke'. The only problem is that he's from the Cape," Marais joked.
"We're standing at 1-1. We lost one there and he lost here (in 2016).
"I know they've got a good culture there and I know that Robbie has put in a lot of work. We've spoken at the (national) coach's Indaba a few times.
"There is no love lost between north and south... Bulls and Stormers. It will be the same this weekend. We expect a very hostile reception and we like it. It makes it interesting.
"It's war... it's nothing else. We're looking forward to it and we want to go there and win.
"They're going to come hard off the line and be very physical. I could see during the off-season they worked a lot on their breakdown and physicality."
Saturday's clash, the last of the weekend, kicks off at 19:30.
Teams:
Stormers
15 SP Marais, 14 Cheslin Kolbe, 13 EW Viljoen, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Dillyn Leyds, 10 Jean-Luc du Plessis, 9 Jano Vermaak, 8 Nizaam Carr, 7 Siya Kolisi (captain), 6 Rynhardt Elstadt, 5 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Wilco Louw, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 JC Janse van Rensburg.
Substitutes: 16 Ramone Samuels, 17 Oli Kebble, 18 Frans Malherbe, 19 Chris van Zyl, 20 Sikhumbuzo Notshe, 21 Dewaldt Duvenage, 22 Dan Kriel, 23 Robert du Preez
Bulls
15 Jesse Kriel, 14 Jamba Ulengo, 13 Dries Swanepoel, 12 Burger Odendaal, 11 Travis Ismaiel, 10 Handre Pollard (captain), 9 Rudy Paige, 8 Hanro Liebenberg, 7 Jacques Potgieter, 6 Nick de Jager, 5 RG Snyman, 4 Lood de Jager, 3 Trevor Nyakane, 2 Jaco Visagie, 1 Pierre Schoeman
Substitutes: 16 Edgar Marutlulle, 17 Jacobie Adriaanse, 18 Lizo Gqoboka, 19 Jason Jenkins, 20 Ruan Steenkamp, 21 Piet van Zyl, 22 Tian Schoeman, 23 Warrick Gelant
