Bulls coach Heyneke Meyer is more than happy for the rugby community to start planning for a Super 12 final between New South Wales (NSW) and the Crusaders.
The South African side slipped into Sydney on Monday for Saturday’s semifinal against NSW, with Meyer declaring his men ready to play positive rugby in a bid to unlock the Waratahs’ iron-clad defence.
The Bulls have been in scintillating form, having won their past six matches on the trot on home soil and having obliterated the Stormers 75-14 in Pretoria at the weekend.
But the poor record of South African teams after flying across the Indian Ocean has the Pretoria-based outfit as firm underdogs.
The Bulls have only won a single match in Australia in Super 12 history and come up against a compact NSW team who have seemingly groomed themselves for tight matches.
However, the Bulls have shown some form on the road this season, having defeated fellow semifinalists the Hurricanes in Wellington and being narrowly defeated 21-19 by Super 12 title holders ACT Brumbies in round two.
A smile swept across Meyer’s face after being asked if it was presumptuous to start talking about a Waratahs-Crusaders final.
”I would love that; I think it is a 50-50 game in the semi and of course I have read a few newspapers, we are underdogs and that is a great position for us to be in,” he said.
The Crusaders host the Hurricanes in the other semifinal at Christchurch.
It is the first time the Bulls have made the semifinals, with the team making a late charge after winning just one of their opening five games.
Meyer said his players intended enjoying the opportunity.
”At this stage of the competition it is mostly mental, getting the guys mentally up, especially these guys away from home, they have not performed that well,” he said.
”So, there is a lot of mental work for the coach to get them up, but we are really going to go out there and play positive and just enjoy ourselves.”
Springbok second-rowers Bakkies Botha and Victor Matfield lead a monster pack looking to bounce back from their last match against the Waratahs.
The home team smashed the South Africans 42-12 at the Aussie Stadium, but Meyer said his backline has become much more settled since the heavy defeat on March 26. — Sapa-AAP