BULLS coach Johan Ackermann.
Image: Backpagepix
On Friday night, the Bulls’ ambitions of hosting a United Rugby Championship semi-final were dashed in Glasgow when the Warriors saw off plucky Connacht. If the Irish team had won, a Bulls victory over Munster in a lunch-time fixture in Pretoria on Saturday would have meant no travel to Europe for the semi.
A positive result on Friday night for the Bulls would have given them that extra lift to beat Munster, but it wasn’t to be, and the word from coach Johan Ackermann to his troops will have been to quickly move on and focus on the task at hand.
And a tough task it will be because Munster have a long history of giant-killing acts on the road. In 2023, they won a quarter-final, semi-final, and final away from home to win the title in Cape Town.
This season, they defeated arch-rivals Leinster in Dublin, and coach Clayton McMillan has promised that his men will “throw the kitchen sink” at the Bulls to secure another heroic upset.
They were not far off when the teams met at Loftus a month ago — the Bulls won 34-31 but were hanging on at the end as the Irishmen scored 17 late points.
Ackermann said they had studied that game with interest.
“We looked at areas where we can improve, but there isn’t always too much you can take out of previous performances. We’ve put a new, fresh mindset on everything to reset ourselves and understand that this comes down to a one-shot opportunity.
“We obviously looked at their strengths and also looked at maybe areas we can attack, and hopefully the plan will work,” Ackermann added.
Teams for Loftus:
Bulls: 15 Willie le Roux, 14 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 13 Canan Moodie, 12 Harold Vorster, 11 Stravino Jacobs, 10 Handre Pollard, 9 Embrose Papier, 8 Cameron Hanekom, 7 Elrigh Louw, 6 Marcell Coetzee (captain), 5 Ruan Nortje, 4 Ruan Vermaak, 3 Wilco Louw, 2 Johan Grobbelaar, 1 Gerhard Steenekamp.
Replacements: 16 Marco van Staden, 17 Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 18 Francois Klopper, 19 Cobus Wiese, 20 Jeandre Rudolph, 21 Paul de Wet, 22 Stedman Gans, 23 Sergeal Petersen
Munster: 15 Mike Haley, 14 Andrew Smith, 13 Alex Nankivell, 12 Seán O’Brien, 11 Shane Daly, 10 JJ Hanrahan, 9 Craig Casey (captain), 8 Brian Gleeson, 7 John Hodnett, 6 Jack O’Donoghue, 5 Evan O’Connell, 4 Tom Ahern, 3 Michael Ala’alatoa, 2 Niall Scannell, 1 Jeremy Loughman.
Replacements: 16 Diarmuid Barron, 17 Josh Wycherley, 18 Conor Bartley, 19 Fineen Wycherley, 20 Gavin Coombes, 21 Ben O’Donovan, 22 Dan Kelly, 23 Alex Kendellen
Referee: Andrea Piardi (Italy) Assistant referees: Federico Vedovelli (Italy), Fillipo Russo (Italy) TMO: Matteo Liperini (Italy).
Kick-off: 1pm, Loftus Versfeld