Director of rugby Jake White is excited about the Vodacom Bulls unleashing a six-two split on the bench against Cardiff in Wales on Friday night.
White on Thursday announced the Bulls matchday 23 for the Vodacom URC clash at the Arms Park, with six replacement forwards and two backs.
It will be the first time that the World Cup-winning coach experiments with the Bomb Squad, made famous by Rassie Erasmus and the Springboks, and White is eager to see how things unfold for The Herd.
Speaking in a Bulls teleconference, he told reporters: “It’s the first time that I’ve ever done that, can you believe it, hey! I’ve never done a six-two bench.
“Next week we’ll probably go 7-1, then against the Sharks we’ll go 8-0,” he joked.
Asked if it was a once-off or a trial to see whether it could become a weapon in the Bulls arsenal, White replied: “It’s a little bit of both. It’s one way in which we can give opportunities to a different pack of forwards.
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“And also it might be a game where it’s on 4G, it’s week three of our tour, and it’s sort of a gut feel… we’ll try it this week and see how it works out for us.
“Keagan Johannes, who plays nine, has played 10 before, and has played fullback; a guy like Johan Goosen has played centre and flyhalf as well, so we’re probably covered with our two backs.”
On what the men from Pretoria can expect from Cardiff, the Bulls boss added: “They’ve had a coaching change, Dai Young is no longer here, but the new head coach [Matt Sherratt] has been with the club so he obviously knows the players.
“The one thing we do know is they play on a 4G pitch – they caught us with the tempo of the game the last time we were here, and the first 20 minutes were really quick.
“I’m sure they’ll want to play the same way.”
The Bulls are third on the URC table going into round 4, with a trip to Edinburgh next Friday for the final stop of their European tour.
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