JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - JANUARY 25: Elrigh Louw of the Bulls with the ball during the United Rugby Championship match between Emirates Lions and Vodacom Bulls at Emirates Airline Park on January 25, 2025 in Johannesburg, South Africa. (Photo by Sydney Seshibedi/Gallo Images)
A depleted Bulls team are gunning for what would be a big upset win over Northampton Saints in their Champions Cup second round match at Franklin’s Gardens in England on Sunday (kick-off 5:15pm), to reignite a flagging season.
It will be an incredibly tough ask for the Bulls, against a team they have lost to twice in the competition, across two seasons last year.
First in April last year, in the quarterfinals of the 2023-24 competition, an understrength Bulls team missing all of their Springboks stars was destroyed 59-22 by a fired-up host team, and then in December, during the pool stage of the 2024-25 tournament, the Bulls suffered their most chastening loss, as a close to full-strength side went down 30-21 on home turf.
Despite sending a squad featuring nine current and former Bok players to England, the Bulls will be missing their best, with Kurt-Lee Arendse, Handré Pollard, Canan Moodie, Wilco Louw, Ruan Nortjé and Marco van Staden all left at home.
Key players
They will thus be relying on players such as current Boks Gerhard Steenekamp and Johan Grobbelaar, star loose forward Elrigh Louw who is returning to full fitness after a long injury layoff, and experienced Bok centurion Willie le Roux to ignite their challenge against Saints.
Other players who will need to step up include Cobus Wiese, Mpilo Gumede, and experienced heads Marcell Coetzee and Nizaam Carr, as well as Embrose Papier and Sebastian de Klerk.
Recent loan signing from the Lions, Kade Wolhuter will also be in line for his Bulls debut, but he will likely feature off the bench, with Keagan Johannes expected to get the starting No 10 jersey.
After going down to the competitions defending champs Union Bordeaux Begles in their opening match at Loftus last weekend, in disappointing fashion, after taking a 33-22 lead into halftime, before being blanked in the second half to suffer a 46-33 loss, the Bulls need a win.
Another loss would leave their playoff hopes hanging by a thread, and would mean they would likely have to beat Bristol Bears at home and Section Paloise in France in their last two pool matches in January to qualify for the knockouts.
Sunday’s clash is thus an important, but incredibly difficult one, for the Bulls to produce an upset and get their Champions Cup campaign up and off the ground.
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