He may have already celebrated his 39th birthday in March, but the Blue Bulls will still have to take care of the Cheetahs’ Ruan Pienaar – especially when a place in the Currie Cup final is at stake.
The former Springbok player missed last week’s group stage match at Loftus Versfeld, but he will be persuaded in Bloemfontein to make the Free Staters’ path to a possible final as smooth as possible.
He will the no. Wears 10 jersey in place of the injured Siya Masuku.
The home team also boasts a very dangerous rear triangle in Tapiwa Mafura, Daniel Kasende and Cohen Jasper. Once these three catch fire, they are very difficult to stop – as the Bulls found out last week.
Hawies Fourie (coach) believes that the home team must now dish out a more disciplined game if they want to square off with the Pretorians for the second weekend.
“Last week we conceded hopelessly too many penalties and we had to stand up to defend our goal line. However, we were able to manage it and it gave us a lot of confidence,” he said.
However, Fourie believes that the Bulls have devised plans to burst through his team’s defensive line.
“However, Saturday is a new game and we all start on a clean slate. We trained this week to speed things up a bit and we want to put the Bulls under pressure from the outset.”
The match starts tomorrow at 15:00 and the action will be broadcast live on SuperSport.
Cheetahs: Tapiwa Mafura (full back), Daniel Kasende (right wing), David Brits (outside centre), Reinhardt Fortuin (inside centre), Cohen Jasper (left wing), Ruan Pienaar (fly-half), Rewan Kruger (scrum-half), Friedle Olivier (eighth man), Siba Qoma (flank), Gideon van der Merwe (flank), Victor Sekekete (captain and lock), Rynier Bernardo (lock), Conraad van Vuuren (prop), Marnus van der Merwe (hooker) and Schalk Ferreira (prop). Substitutes: Louis van der Westhuizen, Alulutho Tshakweni, Hencus van Wyk, Jeandré Rudolph, George Cronjé, Daniel Maartens, Evardi Boshoff and Robert Ebersohn.
