It's THORmeulen versus ThorStormers
PRE-SEASON SPOTLIGHT: The Stormers may be wearing the Thor jersey in Sunday’s superhero outing at the Cape Town stadium, but the real ‘Thor’ will be in the opposing team.
Veteran Springbok loose forward Duane Vermeulen, who played more than 100 games for the Stormers and Western Province, will have his first hit-out for the Bulls.
Vermeulen, who has 46 Test caps to his name, is one of two former Stormers that joined the Bulls in the off-season – the other being Schalk Brits, with 80-odd games for WP and the Stormers.
Bulls coach Pote Human, speaking after his team’s 21-17 win over the Lions in their first pre-season hit-out at Loftus Versfeld at the weekend, said Vermeulen will get game time in Cape Town.
“I want to give all the Springboks opportunities,” Human said.
“We have only two [pre-season] games, then we play the Stormers [in the opening round of Super Rugby on February 16].
“We will look at the guys who have come back from Japan, see how their fitness is and then make a decision.”
The Bulls coach said Vermeulen will be in the selection mix for Sunday’s doubleheader.
“He was here [in Pretoria] this past week and is very keen,” Human said, adding: “He will start training on Monday and I want to give him an opportunity to play.”
Even though Sunday is a pre-season outing, Human said you never have a ‘friendly’ against the Stormers.
“I believe it’s going to be a sell-out crowd and it will be awesome for the guys to play there.
“I want the guys to get match practice there,” the coach added.
Human, speaking about the past weekend’s outing against the Lions, said the number of penalties his team conceded was a concern.
The first 25 minutes they did no conceded any penalties and then eight in a row – including a yellow card.
The coach admitted discipline is a big work-on for his team ahead of the trip to Cape Town.
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