Patience key for Bulls against Lions
Bulls captain Arno Botha believes that his team needs to be patient with ball in hand and put in a committed effort on defence if they are to come away with a victory against the defending Currie Cup champions.
Speaking to media in Pretoria, Botha said that preparations have been going well and now it is up to the players to back the game plan.
"The week so far is good," the captain said, adding: "It's a short week for us, we just need to get the things in place and we can go from there.
"We need to be focused on what we want to do. We must focus on our strong points and work on our weak points and from then on everything will be fine.
"It's going to be a very hard game and the Lions are going to come out and play.
"I think that we need to focus on the things that we need to do well, focus on building phases and from then on we will see what happens in the game," explained Botha.
The last trans-Jukskei derby – between the Bulls and Lions – was a Super Rugby clash in Pretoria back in May. On that occasion, the Lions secured an impressive 56-20 bonus-point victory, after outscoring the Bulls by seven tries to three.
However, Botha does not believe that result will have any influence on either team's confidence coming into this clash.
He feels the numerous personnel changes as both teams look vastly different from the ones that did battle back in May.
"They [Lions] lost a few players, gained a few and we lost a few, gained a few players.< he said.
"That game hurt us a bit, so we can learn from that and the mistakes we made there.
"However, it's not all the same players or the same teams," Botha said.
By Josh Isaacson
@isaacson_j
@rugby365com
