VIDEO: It is 'game on' for underdog Bulls in Dublin
Most pundits believe the Bulls will be blown away, much like Glasgow Warriors were in the United Rugby Championship quarterfinal last weekend.
However, Bulls captain Marcell Coetzee is adamant that his team will not submit meekly and will “fire some shots” at the tournament favourites.
For the visiting South African team, their semifinal outing at the RDS Arena in Dublin is not ‘mission impossible’.
Coetzee said they are ’embracing the challenge’, despite bookmakers listing them as rank outsiders – with a handicap of at least 17 points.
And their 28-point loss on their previous visit to Ireland is also not a measure of the current qualities of the Bulls.
He said their trip to Dublin in September last year – which resulted in a demoralizing 3-31 loss to Leinster – was the first time many of the young players in the team had ventured outside South Africa.
“It was a big shock to many of the players,” he said – many who had only experienced Currie Cup rugby.
“We have grown immensely in this tournament and you have seen boys become men,” Coetzee told a virtual media briefing from the team’s training base in Dublin.
However, he admitted they will only learn on Friday how much they have ‘grown’ since the first-round loss in the newly-launched URC.
Coetzee believes they have a 50-50 chance of beating the odds.
“They have world-class players all over the park and are coached by a world-class system,” the Bulls skipper said.
However, the Irish champions are not unbeatable.
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As French outfit Stade Rochelais showed in the European Cup Final, with a 24-21 win, Leinster can be contained.
It is all about winning the physical contest, getting the better of them in the set pieces and not allowing them to get into their rhythm.
“They play with incredible tempo,” Coetzee said, adding: “If you allow them to get off to a fast start you will be under pressure.
“They always try to ‘out-work’ the opposition. You see it with their national team [Ireland] as well.
“It is all about backing your system and our defence has looked after us well.
“We are still far from perfect, but we are striving to be better every day.
“You simply can’t allow them to get that quick pace on the ball, given the playmakers they have in their backline.”
The Bulls skipper added that the ‘pillars of success’ in any play-off match are your set-pieces.
“If your set-pieces function on the day, it helps you get control of the game – get you in the right areas of the game, just like we built towards that drop-goal [against the Sharks in the quarterfinal.
“It started with a penalty, we got our line-out functioning and then we built from that.
“That will be essential, just like the French team [Stade Rochelais] did against Leinster.”
Asked about all the pre-match talk about Leinster’s favouritism, he said many factors come into the equation.
“There will always be pressure in a semifinal and we play them on their home turf,” Coetzee said.
“The boys decided, when we left South Africa [on Sunday] that we are up for this game.
“The key is whether you can sustain your game plan while the pressure is on.
“We back out system and for weeks now we have been approaching every game with a knock-out mindset. This week won’t be any different.
“We respect them and acknowledge their achievements, but it is going to be ‘game on’.
“We are looking forward to it.”
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