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Bulls borrow Stormers' recipe
2008-4-1 22:01

Morris Gilbert

Pretoria - The Bulls will take a leaf out of the success recipe that the Stormers used against the Western Force last weekend when they meet the Australians in a Super 14 rugby match in Perth on Friday.

Bulls coach Frans Ludeke said on Tuesday the Stormers had beaten the Force convincingly by defending brilliantly, getting the upper hand tactically and finishing well.

Ludeke said they expected the Force to produce a better performance than last week "but the Stormers showed how they could be beaten.

"What is encouraging, is that we are now much more at ease with the experimental laws and that we are more successful from broken play," the coach said.

Bulls captain Fourie du Preez suspects that the Force dropped their guard last week after an outstanding tour of New Zealand.

"They won't make the mistake of underestimating their opponents for a second consecutive week," Du Preez said.

"But we know after our solid performance against the Blues that we're still good enough to take on any team on equal footing.

"One of the reasons that we played so much better against the Blues than we had done against the Reds was that we were at full strength for the first time this season.

The team:
Zane Kirchner, Akona Ndungane, JP Nel, Wynand Olivier, Bryan Habana, Derick Hougaard, Fourie du Preez (capt), Pierre Spies, Wikus van Heerden, Pedrie Wannenburg, Danie Rossouw, Bakkies Botha, Rayno Gerber, Derick Kuün, Gurthrö Steenkamp.

Substitutes: Bandise Maku, Werner Kruger, Jaco Engels, Wilhelm Steenkamp, Deon Stegmann, Heini Adams and Morné Steyn.