Cape Town - Edinburgh may be loaded with Scottish internationals, but that doesn’t mean that the Bulls will suddenly go into their shells in this afternoon’s United Rugby Championship showdown at Loftus Versfeld (2.30pm kickoff).
The Pretoria side have a score to settle with their northern opponents, having gone down 17-10 at the DAM Heath Stadium last season.
And coach Mike Blair announced a formidable side yesterday that boast former South Africans Pierre Schoeman and WP Nel at prop, powerful No 8 Viliame Mata and household Test players such as flyhalf Blair Kinghorn, wing Darcy Graham and fullback Henry Immelman.
Then they’ve brought in British and Irish Lions openside flank Hamish Watson onto the bench – who missed last week’s 44-6 win over the Dragons – and there a few more ex-SA players such as props Boan Venter, Luan de Bruin and flyhalf Jaco van der Walt.
But the Bulls can fight fire with fire. White has finally unleashed Johan Goosen – at fullback, though – after his nearly 12-month absence from the game with a knee injury, and giant No 8 Elrigh Louw also returns following his cameo for the Springboks in Argentina last week.
“They beat us last year, and most of these guys are Scottish internationals. They play together and have a good side, and they beat us last year. We know that we are not going to underestimate them. They are coming here with four South African props in their 23, so they will know what it’s like at Loftus,” White said from Loftus yesterday.
“I just want us to improve in every game. We weren’t great last week (the 31-15 win over the Lions), in every aspect of the game, but we got the job done. We showed things, like at 15-all, what good teams do: they just find a way to grind it out and win the game.
“Edinburgh is a different challenge. They are a good side, they are well-coached and play a similar style to the Lions. They like to move the ball around, they like to try and get around you, and beat you and use their outside backs.
“But let’s also not forget that it’s altitude, it’s 2.30 in the afternoon. They’ve (Edinburgh) been in Cape Town the whole week, and people can under-play it as much as they like – the more the game is about keeping the ball alive and repeated involvements, the more challenging it will be for both teams.
“I would like to believe that us having trained on this field, played at altitude and played most of our rugby in those conditions, it will suit us better.”
The 30-year-old Goosen begins his journey back to the top, with Bok coach Jacques Nienaber eager to see his progress ahead of the end-of-year tour to Europe.
But the national team management will have to wait to see him at flyhalf. “To be fair to Chris (Smith), everyone expects when Goosen arrives, then all of a sudden he’s got to drop down to the bench,” White said.
“So, Johan’s played 12, 13, 10… The combination with having both those guys on the field, and also getting Johan into the game without having to control everything from minute one – he can sort of get a feel for it as the game unfolds.
“And he won’t last 80 minutes, as he’s just come back from about 11 months off. That is why we’ve got Morné (Steyn) on the bench, to cover that up as well.
“At 10, he is in the firing line as well with running everything from minute one. But listen, I know him well enough – not that I don’t think he’s going to try to push himself into 10 all the time either!
“The nice thing is that he can control the way he wants to be involved, what sort of level he wants to get involved. And that’s exciting, because the more he gets into the first-receiver role in the time that he’s on the field, the more comfortable he will be to do it over the next couple of weeks as well.”
Teams For Loftus Versfeld
Bulls: 15 Johan Goosen 14 Cornal Hendricks 13 Lionel Mapoe 12 David Kriel 11 Stravino Jacobs 10 Chris Smith 9 Zak Burger 8 Elrigh Louw 7 Ruan Vermaak 6 Marcell Coetzee (captain) 5 Ruan Nortje 4 Walt Steenkamp 3 Mornay Smith 2 Johan Grobbelaar 1 Gerhard Steenekamp.
Bench: 16 Jan-Hendrik Wessels 17 Simphiwe Matanzima 18 Francois Klopper 19 Janko Swanepoel 20 Marco van Staden 21 Embrose Papier 22 Morné Steyn 23 Stedman Gans.
Edinburgh: 15 Henry Immelman 14 Darcy Graham 13 Mark Bennett 12 James Lang 11 Damien Hoyland 10 Blair Kinghorn 9 Henry Pyrgos 8 Viliame Mata 7 Luke Crosbie 6 Jamie Ritchie (co-captain) 5 Grant Gilchrist (co-captain) 4 Sam Skinner 3 WP Nel 2 Dave Cherry 1 Pierre Schoeman.
Bench: 16 Stuart McInally 17 Boan Venter 18 Luan de Bruin 19 Marshall Sykes 20 Hamish Watson 21 Ben Vellacott 22 Jaco van der Walt 23 Chris Dean.