Cape Town - The Bulls were down and out after the first six matches of the United Rugby Championship, with just a single win in 2021.
But now they will take on the Stormers in Saturday’s final at Cape Town Stadium (7.30pm kickoff), and coach Jake White will be hoping that his team have one more big performance in them after beating Leinster 27-26 in Dublin.
We are profiling the entire Bulls starting XV that have got them to the title decider and are likely to face the Stormers, and today we look at the loose trio …
Openside flank: Marcell Coetzee
The Bulls captain took a gamble by leaving Ulster after five years to return to South Africa. He was reportedly well-liked in Belfast for his all-action style of play, and may have continued in Northern Ireland or move to another overseas team.
But despite having been a Sharks stalwart at the start of his senior career, Coetzee opted for Loftus Versfeld and Jake White, and hasn’t looked back.
We all know how he gets stuck in at the breakdowns and loves to make tackles, but his time up north has clearly developed his attacking game considerably.
Where in the past he almost always looked for contact when carrying the ball, he now manages to get his offload away in the tackle, which has seen him lead that statistical list in the URC.
Coetzee is much livelier with ball-in-hand, and has added to the fluency in the Bulls attack. And of course, he has been excellent as a captain as well, with last week’s semi-final win over Leinster one of the highlights of his career.
Saturday’s URC title decider will see him up against another one of the older statesmen, Deon Fourie, who has also been included in the Bok squad for the Wales series.
Their one-on-one battle will go a long way in determining the outcome of the final.
Blindside flank: Arno Botha
Botha took a few U-turns before coming back to Pretoria. Having made his Springbok debut as a 20-year-old in 2012, injuries hampered his progress, and the former SA Under-20 captain has just two Test caps.
He eventually left Loftus Versfeld in 2018 for London Irish, before rediscovering his touch with Munster in Ireland. He played over 40 matches for the Limerick outfit, but then Jake White called on him in 2020 to come back home – and he hasn’t regretted it.
He hasn’t just walked straight into the team, though. Duane Vermeulen was the Bulls captain and No 8, and there were several other loose forwards in the squad such as Nizaam Carr, Muller Uys, Tim Agaba and Elrigh Louw. Later on, Jacques du Plessis also joined from France, while Cyle Brink arrived from England this season.
But Botha got on with the job, and is now one of the key figures in the Bulls pack. Brink’s season-ending hamstring injury has opened up the No 7 jersey for Botha, and the 30-year-old from Modimolle in Limpopo has shown his class in that regard.
He has been a powerful ball-carrier up the middle and in the wider channels, always seeming to get over the advantage line, while he is a solid lineout jumper too.
Botha will face a fierce direct test against Stormers No 7 Hacjivah Dayimani, who has the footwork to beat defenders, so it will be an interesting tussle.
No 8: Elrigh Louw
Having first arrived on the provincial scene at the Southern Kings, Louw was in danger of being in the rugby wilderness when the Gqeberha side fell apart in 2020.
But the Bulls snapped him up that same year, and he made the big move to Pretoria. Louw started out as a blindside flank at the Bulls, and was able to learn right under the wing of one of his heroes, Duane Vermeulen, who was the captain and No 8.
Louw was a terrific ball-carrier who added real punch to the Bulls attack, while he sometimes also displayed his ‘soft’ skills by offloading in the tackle.
Once Vermeulen moved to Ulster, it was thought that Arno Botha would move to the back of the scrum, but Louw put his hand up and asked coach Jake White if he could have a go at packing down at the back of the scrum.
White gave the go-ahead, and now Louw is in the Springbok squad. He is a powerful figure with ball-in-hand, and has learnt to find gaps in the defence as well instead of just running straight at the defence. He was especially effective in last week’s epic win over Leinster in Dublin, where he had good ground around the fringes of the rucks.
It is set to be an enthralling No 8 duel between Louw and Stormers star Evan Roos, who is also in the Bok squad.
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