Emotional farewell for Bulls skipper
Blue Bulls captain Gary Botha will play his last game at Loftus Versfeld this weekend before he sets off with teammate Gurthro Steenkamp to join French Top 14 champions Toulouse.
The Blue Bulls have had a difficult Currie Cup season in the absence of a number of their Springbok stars who have been on World Cup duty as well as suffering their fair share of injury woes, and they will be hoping that the Pumas manage to upset Western Province at Newlands this weekend in order to give them a chance of securing a semifinal spot.
If the Blue Bulls do manage to beat the Leopards convincingly and Province trip up against the Pumas then the Pretoria side will have finished the season in fourth place with no chance of any of their play-off matches being at home.
Botha admitted that the occasion would be an emotional one as it might be his last at the famous stadium.
“There will always be emotions if you know it is your last game. I am looking forward to it, but I think the pressure will be more knowing it’s my last match,” said the Blue Bulls skipper.
“One never knows what happens in the future, so hopefully I can swing back some other time,” he added.
Botha said they would not see it as a failure if the Blue Bulls did not make it into the next phase of the competition.
“You only learn through trial and error and I’ll rather say we’ll see what the experience is and what we have picked out of it,” he explained.
“As a Bulls player and the strong culture that we have here, it is a personal thing. We will always like to be in a semifinal and a final because we like to see ourselves as an institute that is successful,” he added.
Botha will join Steenkamp, Kiwi utility back Luke McAlister and Wallaby scrumhalf Luke Burgess at Toulouse who will be aiming to win a record 19th Top 14 title and fifth European Cup this season.
