Bulls v Glasgow: Reward of home play-off outweighs need for revenge

The Bulls have said their desire for home play-off qualification trumps their yearning to settle a grudge against Glasgow Warriors.

The teams play in the 16th round of the United Rugby Championship (URC) at Scotstoun Stadium, Scotland, on Friday (kick-off 8.35pm).

With the teams ranked second and third on the URC table, and 13 points ahead of fifth-placed Benetton near the end of the season, the winner is all but guaranteed a top-four finish and home quarter-final.

The higher the Bulls finish on the table also determines whether they will host a home semi-final and final, should they progress that far and play against teams finishing below them.

But the game against Glasgow has all the more to play for with the Scottish side beating the Bulls 21–16 in last year’s URC final at Loftus.

Bulls boss Jake White said they had targeted this grudge match all season, with “everyone” writing the date “on their wall” as soon as it was announced.

To this, Glasgow’s attack coach Nigel Carolan said that while they hadn’t given the Bulls much thought during the season, they know it will be a tough game against the Pretoria side.

“We don’t really talk about the Bulls and what they’re going to bring,” Carolan said. “You know what the challenge is going to be. They’re going to be physical. Obviously they’re going to be snorting when they come out because the chip is on their shoulder, trying to get revenge over us.

Home play-offs ‘worth fighting for’

Bulls loose forward Marcell Coetzee and No 8 Cameron Hanekom told media on Tuesday that while revenge was a factor, the reward of a home quarter-final “maybe outweighs that”.

““There’s something big waiting for us at home if we can pull this off and that’s worth fighting for,” Coetzee said.

Hanekom said the Bulls could not get caught up in the hype around a grudge match or look at Glasgow’s upcoming matches against Benetton and URC leaders Leinster. Instead, they were taking the URC game by game.

“We are aiming to get the home quarter-final but we take it game by game. We don’t want to jump the gun or anything,” Hanekom said.

“Every game for us is crucial to build on what we’ve been creating after this Munster game, and just improving as a team and a collective unit.”

Hanekom was referring to their 16–13 win in Ireland last weekend. There, both players had a great game, with Coetzee completing the most tackles (31) and Hanekom winning a number of turnovers at the breakdown.