VIDEO: Bulls' Currie Cup dream could face a URC obstacle

The Bulls could face a fully-fledged United Rugby Championship team in the next round of Currie Cup matches, but they feel it could work in their favour.

The unbeaten Bulls cemented their place at the top of the Currie Cup standings and booked their place in the semifinals, with a bonus-point 47-24 rout of Griquas at the weekend.

The visitors from Kimberley were willing and for large parts competitive especially in the first half.

However, once the Bulls shifted up in gears, Griquas could not stay with the Pretoria team.

Bulls coach Phiwe Nomlomo said there was a ‘lot of good’ that came from their Round Eight rout of Griquas, even though they may have been forced to defend a lot more than they would have liked.

The visitors were the more energetic and accurate of the two teams, a plethora of amateur errors costing the home team dearly in the opening quarter – a period in which the home team conceded 10 turnovers.

When they did eventually awake from their slumber, the Bulls scored three tries in a seven-minute blitz to stop Griquas’ onslaught.

Nomlomo admitted they will have to improve considerably in the last two rounds of league action – a ‘home game’ (at the Midstream College school campus) against the Lions next Friday (August 30) and an away game against the Sharks on Sunday, September 8.

“We will have to find that cohesion on defence, towards the back-end of the competition,” he said.

The coach said the Trans-Jukskei Derby against the Lions now becomes their most important game.

The challenge is that the Lions may field their United Rugby Championship team and that presents a very different challenge.

“The Lions’ two coaching teams [Currie Cup and URC] will bring something different,” he told @rugby365com, adding: “If it is Mzwakhe [Nkosi] and his team it is different than Cash [Ivan van Rooyen] and his team.

“There is a lot of planning that needs to go into it and that is our focus now.”

Nomlomo said not knowing which selection the Lions will send to the Round Nine encounter serendipitously works in the Bulls’ favour.

(WATCH as Bulls coach Phiwe Nomlomo explains their plans for the final run-in to the Currie Cup play-offs….)

“We can focus more on ourselves and less on the opposition,” he said.

“We will be able to clean up one or two areas and work on our accuracy.

“That is always better to focus on yourself and get your systems in place – just show up and play.”

@king365ed
@rugby365com