Francois Hougaard celebrates with team mates during the match between Vodacom Bulls and Highlanders.
However, they probably only succeeded in emphasising the men form Pretoria’s championship qualities. It was most endearing characteristic of the Crusaders in the time that they won their seven titles – even when they play badly they manage to pull of a win.
The Bulls have showed, several times this season, that even when they go behind – they have trailed by 0-17 on occasion – they have the mental fortitude to stay calm and come back to secure a win.
Central to that calmness is Bulls captain Victor Matfield, who – along with Sharks skipper John Smit – will on Saturday achieve another milestone.
Matfield and Smit will equal Corne Krige’s South African record of 52 games as captain of their respective Super Rugby franchises.
Both players also reached their 100th Super Rugby caps earlier this season.
The Bulls are in Perth, where they face the lowly Western Force. The Sharks are in Wellington for their final match of their five-week tour, when they take on the Hurricanes on Saturday. This will also be the fifth consecutive weekend where the Hurricanes face South African opposition.
Having lost to the Bulls (19-18), Stormers (37-13) and the Cheetahs (28-12) during their recent tour to South Africa, their only win against SA opposition was a 33-18 triumph against the Lions.
The other game we will look at in this part of our preview is the trans-Tasman encounter between the Waratahs and the Blues.
Courtesy of iafrica.com
Comments are closed.