Rugby

No thoughts of revenge as Bulls take on Leinster in URC semifinal

The final time the 2 sides met was in the pool stage again in March in Dublin when Leinster walked away with a thumping 47-14 win.

The Bulls usually are not serious about gaining revenge after they entrance up in opposition to Irish powerhouse Leinster in their United Rugby Championship (URC) semifinal at Loftus on Saturday afternoon.

The final time the 2 sides met was in the pool stage again in March when a full-strength Leinster, that includes their Irish internationals who had been recent off a Six Nations win, destroyed the Bulls 47-14 in Dublin.

ALSO READ: First Leinster, then hopefully the Boks, says Bulls’ Wilco Louw

In the sport the Bulls loved a stable first half, trailing 12-11, and took a 14-12 lead early in the second half, earlier than they had been blown away by the fired-up hosts, however regardless of the frustration of that outcome Bulls prop Gerhard Steenekamp says they aren’t in search of revenge.

“I don’t think revenge in rugby will get you anywhere. We have just been working on all the mistakes we made (in that match). The whole season we have been building up to something special and we will take that into this weekend and try to keep moving forward,” mentioned Steenekamp.

Step up

The Bulls are coming off a troublesome quarterfinal win over Benetton, the place they had been pushed laborious by a facet they had been anticipated to beat comfortably, they usually might want to make a giant step up in the event that they wish to get previous a robust Leinster crew.

“I think we missed a few tackles at crucial points of the (Benetton) game. So that’s something we have been working on this week. Also to play (well) for the full 80 minutes,” defined Steenekamp.

“Irish teams, Leinster in particular with all their internationals, have played at the highest level and on the biggest stage. We have to make sure that we stay switched on for the whole game, so that we don’t have any soft moments and give them any easy points.”

The scrum battle is about to be an exciting one, with an all-Irish entrance row anticipated to line-up in opposition to an in-form Bulls entrance three that includes Steenekamp, Johan Grobbelaar or Akker van der Merwe, and Wilco Louw.

Eight man effort

However Steenekamp claimed that it’ll take a full eight man effort to get the higher hand and that they had been simply glad to be taking part in a strong Leinster facet in entrance of their dwelling followers.

“The scrums have been going well but they haven’t been perfect. There is still a lot that we can improve on. They have a respected scrum. We will have to see what happens on the day. It’s eight against eight and we will try to come out on top,” mentioned Steenekamp.

“It may be very good that we’re taking part in in our yard this weekend, which provides us a bit of a bonus but it surely’s not going to win us the sport.

“It is going to be a big game and if you want to be the best you have to measure yourself against the best. You have to be able to beat them home and away, so it is another big game against a big Leinster side.”

Overall Steenekamp is pleased with the season that his facet have had, however admitted that it may well solely be thought-about a profitable one in the event that they win the URC.

“I feel now we have had a extremely good season. We have actually improved our away kind. If you wish to win a event like this you might have to have the ability to win away from dwelling and now we have achieved that.

“So it has definitely been a good season. But no season is great without a trophy in the cabinet, because their can only be one winner.”


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