The Bulls must back up their Investec Champions Cup win against Pau in France a week ago with victory against Edinburgh in the United Rugby Championship.
The win a week ago snapped a seven-match losing sequence and it was just enough to get the Bulls into the Champions Cup last 16. They play Glasgow’s Warriors in Glasgow on April 4.
All focus this weekend is on the URC, where the Bulls started well and then fell off a cliff, with teams running riot against a feeble defence.
That defence stood firm in Pau, with the Bulls making four times the tackles of Pau in attempting 300 tackles and winning with just 30% possession and territory.
Nizaam Carr, who started at No 8, led the tackle stats and was the leader in nearly every facet of play. He also scored the match-equalling try, with Handré Pollard landing the two points that won the match and took the Bulls into the last 16.
Defence is as much about attitude as it is systems, and the Bulls for the first time this season showed desperation, intent and desire to defend their tryline.
More of that desperation will be needed in Edinburgh, whose form has been a mixture of impressive and awful.
Edinburgh beat Toulon in the Champions Cup but lost back-to-back derby matches against Glasgow, who are among the leading teams in all competitions this season.
The Bulls, with so many world-class individuals, have the potential to be a top four team in the URC, but the winning must continue in Edinburgh.
Bulls coach Johan Ackermann has taken the strongest available group on tour for last Friday and this Friday’s matches, with the bench selections this week as strong as they were last week. The substitutes made the necessary impact in Pau. More of the same has to happen in Edinburgh.
The Lions face a tough challenge in Wales against the Ospreys, by way of weather conditions, but frankly one never knows what to expect from the Lions.
Just when you think they have found cohesion and simplicity to be effective, they implode, and once written off, they find a special performance to embarrass those doubters.
From a South African league perspective, let’s hope it is the special performance that warms the hearts on what will be a very cold night in Wales.
South Africa’s Coastal Derby in Cape Town is expected to be a sell-out, with 54,000 at the DHL Stadium for a match that will feature 20-plus Springboks, past and present, in the combined match-day squads.
Springbok captain and former Stormer Siya Kolisi will play for the Sharks from the bench in Cape Town, knowing he will be playing for the Stormers next season in the Coastal Derby.
Sharks coach JP Pietersen has opted to load his bench cover with Kolisi, Springbok loosehead prop Ox Nche and Bok flanker Vincent Tshituka, with Springbok scrumhalf Grant Williams and Junior Springboks 2025 Player of the Year Jurenzo Julius sure to add to the spectacle in the last quarter.
Aphelele Fassi is always good value at fullback and few possess a midfield as powerful, big and imposing as Andre Esterhuizen and Ethan Hooker.
Injuries have forced changes on the wing for the Sharks, and inexperience in this position could prove decisive for the Stormers, who concentrate so much of their attack on a strong and accurate kick/receive game.
The Stormers are eight from eight and the only unbeaten team in the league, while the Sharks have won just two and drawn one from eight.
But as is the case with any South African match-up, the form book gets shredded when Bok mates go at each other.
It will be a ripper in Cape Town. Expect the same intensity of a month ago when the Stormers edged the Bulls 13-8, after the teams were level 8-all with two minutes to go.
The Stormers have won the past four URC matches at the DHL Stadium in Cape Town, but the average score differential is an unconverted try.
The Stormers, at home and unbeaten in the league, are the favourites.
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