Blue Bulls won't play poker

2007-09-30 22:43

Morris Gilbert

Pretoria - The slight chance that the Blue Bulls still have of securing a home Currie Cup final makes victory against the log-leading Cheetahs at Loftus Versfeld on Friday night extremely important.

For that reason, the Bulls are not going to start playing poker at this critical stage of the season. Third place on the log is what they are aiming for, says the team's coach, Pote Human.

The Bulls are in the position of being able to "decide" against whom they would like to play in the semi-final - against the Cheetahs or the Sharks - "but that is not how we are approaching the match against the Free Staters," Human said on Sunday.

His team won't deliberately lose to the Cheetahs to ensure they play the Sharks in the semi-final.

"The mere fact that the final can still be at Loftus (if the Bulls beat the Sharks and the Lions beat the Cheetahs in the other semi-final) is reason enough to hold nothing back against the Cheetahs."

The Bulls gained a lot of momentum and confidence with their convincing victory over the Cavaliers at Wellington on Saturday and Human sees the match against the Cheetahs as "the next challenge".

He was impressed by the performance of all 22 players who were involved in the match against the Cavaliers. "I asked for a big effort and they produced it," Human said.

The outstanding Currie Cup debut by 20-year-old eighthman Okkie Kruger has created a pleasant problem for the coach.

"Okkie was brilliant. I was also impressed by the performance of (substitute No 8) Dewald Potgieter in the last 20 minutes."

Human will know on Monday how serious the ankle injuries are that Jacques-Louis Potgieter and JP Nel suffered at the weekend and whether Derick Hougaard will recover from his calf-muscle injury in time to play on Friday.

- Beeld