2014 Super Rugby: Bulls vs. Brumbies (Round 15) 23/05/2014

[TRF_heineken]

Loftus Versveld, Pretoria

19:10 CAT​

Teams:

Bulls: 15 Jurgen Visser, 14 Akona Ndungane, 13 JJ Engelbrecht, 12 Jan Serfontein, 11 Bjorn Basson, 10 Jacques-Louis Potgieter, 9 Francois Hougaard, 8 Grant Hattingh, 7 Jacques du Plessis, 6 Jono Ross, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Flip van der Merwe (captain), 3 Werner Kruger, 2 Callie Visagie, 1 Dean Greyling

Substitutes: 16 Bongo Mbonambi, 17 Morné Mellett, 18 Marcel van der Merwe, 19 Paul Willemse, 20 Jacques Engelbrecht, 21 Piet van Zyl, 22 Handré Pollard, 23 Ulrich Beyers

Brumbies: 1. Scott Sio , 2. Stephen Moore , 3. Ben Alexander , 4. Leon Power , 5. Sam Carter , 6. Scott Fardy , 7. Jarrad Butler , 8. Ben Mowen (c) , 9. Nic White , 10. Matt Toomua , 11. Robbie Coleman , 12. Christian Lealiifano , 13. Tevita Kuridrani , 14. Henry Speight , 15. Jesse Mogg

Substitutes: 16. Josh Mann-Rea , 17. Ruan Smith , 18. JP Smith , 19. Fotu Auelua , 20. Jordan Smiler , 21. Conrad Hoffmann , 22. Andrew Smith , 23. Pat McCabe

 

[SomeOke]

Heineken, would you care to speculate why Pollard isn't starting.
Huge game for the Bulls, really hope they can pull this off, they need to win their remaining fixtures and with this (and the Stormers at Newlands) is the real test.

Would love to see the Bulls make a surge at the end and become title contenders. I'm a little upset about JPL though, a very solid player who steadied the ship at the beginning of the season but Pollard just gets the Bulls going forward so much better.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Make or break time for the Bulls. Go.. erm..., B... GO,.. B.u.ll...s. Damn, that was hard. Felt like taking a **** after new years. At the end of the day only having 1 SA team in the play-offs would be a harder pill to swallow and the Bulls need quite some measure of luck still.

 

[Gena_ZA]

Heineken, would you care to speculate why Pollard isn't starting.
Huge game for the Bulls, really hope they can pull this off, they need to win their remaining fixtures and with this (and the Stormers at Newlands) is the real test.

Would love to see the Bulls make a surge at the end and become title contenders. I'm a little upset about JPL though, a very solid player who steadied the ship at the beginning of the season but Pollard just gets the Bulls going forward so much better.

My guess is cause he is the captain of th SA U21 side and the Junior World Cup is around the corner (June)

 

[TRF_heineken]

My guess is cause he is the captain of th SA U21 side and the Junior World Cup is around the corner (June)

Yup, that's the only thing that I can think of. He's leaving the Bulls Camp on Sunday to join the U/21 group as the tournament starts on the 2nd of June.

 

[Jaguares]

Brumbies team named:

1. Scott Sio , 2. Stephen Moore , 3. Ben Alexander , 4. Leon Power , 5. Sam Carter , 6. Scott Fardy , 7. Jarrad Butler , 8. Ben Mowen (c) , 9. Nic White , 10. Matt Toomua , 11. Robbie Coleman , 12. Christian Lealiifano , 13. Tevita Kuridrani , 14. Henry Speight , 15. Jesse Mogg

Replacements: 16. Josh Mann-Rea , 17. Ruan Smith , 18. JP Smith , 19. Fotu Auelua , 20. Jordan Smiler , 21. Conrad Hoffmann , 22. Andrew Smith , 23. Pat McCabe

 

[TRF_heineken]

I'm really looking forward to this contest.

Brumbies, according to the stats are one of the top 3 teams that kicks the most. And the Bulls are leading the way with most successful lineouts and lineout steals, with Big Vic leading the individual line-out stats.

So I wonder how each team will go into this match. With Bjorn Basson and Jurgen Visser being relatively safe under the high balls, it could play into the Bulls hands.

I just hope it doesn't become a snorefest

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

I hope the Bulls get max points on the log for SA's sake but I hope a select few Brumbies (in my fantasy rugby team to be precise) have blinders.

 

[Jaguares]

A very very hard game for Brumbies. F**k!!! I withdraw Jacques L Potgieter from my Fantasy team and now he's making many points.

 

[Jaguares]

Intercept try by Bjorn Basson

Bulls 31 Brumbies 6

Finished game

 

[TRF Mr Fish]

Very interesting. The worst thing for the Sharks would actually be the Bulls making the finals, as they're the only team with a realistic chance of beating the Sharks in Durban.

 

[Darwin]

Very interesting. The worst thing for the Sharks would actually be the Bulls making the finals, as they're the only team with a realistic chance of beating the Sharks in Durban.

cough....Highlanders....cough......

 

[TRF Mr Fish]

cough....Highlanders....cough......

Haha I actually think all of the teams vying for the top six (bar Hurricanes and Force) could beat the Sharks in Durban, but the Bulls would be most likely to.

Travelling to Durban is certainly not as threatening as travelling to Loftus!

 

[TRF_heineken]

What a performance by my team! Revenge was sweet!

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Serfontein in particular was very effective.

 

[Jaguares]

What a performance by my team! Revenge was sweet!

Congratulations Bulls! a HUGE victory

 

[Gena_ZA]

Very good victory for the Bulls and keeps them in the running for a play off spot