Here’s something you wouldn’t have expected to hear about the Lions: they are going to kick more against the Bulls in Saturday’s United Rugby Championship showdown at Loftus Versfeld (2pm kick-off).
That golden nugget came from none other than Bulls director of rugby Jake White on Friday.
The Lions are renowned for employing an all-out attacking style, where they look to play with width, throw the ball around whenever they can, and utilise ever-dangerous backline snipers Quan Horn, Henco van Wyk and Edwill van der Merwe.
The Bulls also embraced a much more positive approach since White took charge in Pretoria, and they have scored some amazing tries over the years with some deft handling and terrific strike-power out wide.
But it isn’t happening for them at the moment, and they are seriously missing Springbok star Kurt-Lee Arendse, flyhalf Johan Goosen and No 8 Cameron Hanekom.
At least White shuffled his cards a bit on Friday. Hanekom is still out with a calf problem and Willie le Roux is at flyhalf again.
But Stedman Gans will bring a fresh mindset at outside centre, where his sevens skills as a former Blitzboks captain will bring a point of difference to the Bulls attack.
Sebastian de Klerk is also fearless with ball-in-hand, while Le Roux and Embrose Papier will look to create more opportunities for those strike-runners out wide.
“I didn’t send out a list of injuries, as it doesn’t matter – everyone is sitting in the same position,” White said.
“I’m a realist. We are playing more and more rugby, and more and more people are expecting us to hit our straps every Saturday, and that’s fantastic – but it’s not going to happen.
“All I’ve got to try and do as a coach is (identify) these are the weeks that we have to regroup, these are the weeks to use whatever lessons we have learnt.
“And if those lessons are that we are not finishing people off... I probably erred because I took Willie off too early (in the 29-19 loss to the Sharks). Maybe I should’ve left Willie on.
“But then all of you look at me and say, ‘But Willie played 40 minutes, as he was in the bin for 10, and in the first 30 of those minutes, we were in our half of the field for 80 percent of the time’.
“Now, I haven’t met too many 10s who have been able to defend on their trylines, and still win Man of the Matches in the time that I’ve coached.
“I needed to share with you guys that the only people who think we are in a hole... We might not win every game to the end of the tournament, (but) I’m not for one minute saying that it’s all doom and gloom.
“Are we where we need to be? No. Are we where I want them to be over five years? No. Are there factors involved in it? Of course there are – injuries, the draw that we’ve had...
“Which other teams have played 10 games, and seven were away? None. Which other teams had four derby games in one month? None.”
Now, what’s that about the Lions kicking more? The Bulls may doubt themselves after going down to the Sharks, but did beat the Johannesburg side 35-22 at Ellis Park about a month ago.
White will be banking on his powerful pack, led by an all-Springbok front row of Gerhard Steenekamp, Johan Grobbelaar and Wilco Louw, to set the tone in the scrums and driving mauls again.
But as we saw at Loftus last week, the Bulls need the backs to convert all that front-foot ball into points, while also standing strong in defence against a slick Lions unit.
“I’m expecting exactly the same every time we play them. They lift their game against us – a lot of them live in this town, and have been here before. When you let a guy go from your club, they generally play well against you,” the Bulls boss said.
“One thing I found with the Lions is that they generally play well against us, and we won with a bonus point the last time, but the score-line at Ellis Park didn’t reflect the game.
“A lot of them are going to the alignment camp, which will boost them as well.
“I think they’ll kick a bit more. The try they scored against us came from a kick. They won’t kick everything, but when you do an analysis on the Lions, nothing has changed.”
Bulls Team
15 Devon Williams 14 Sebastian de Klerk 13 Stedman Gans 12 David Kriel 11 Canan Moodie 10 Willie le Roux 9 Embrose Papier 8 Mpilo Gumede 7 Reinhardt Ludwig (captain) 6 Marco van Staden 5 JF van Heerden 4 Cobus Wiese 3 Wilco Louw 2 Johan Grobbelaar 1 Gerhard Steenekamp.
Bench: 16 Jan-Hendrik Wessels 17 Alulutho Tshakweni 18 Francois Klopper 19 Ruan Vermaak 20 Nizaam Carr 21 Zak Burger 22 Keagan Johannes 23 Sergeal Petersen.