Cape Town - On the face of it, the Bulls should have an easy time in dispatching the Glasgow Warriors in Saturday’s United Rugby Championship (URC) clash (8.35pm kick-off).
The Pretoria side have made a three-match unbeaten start to the season, having reached the final last term in an incredible second half, after losing five out of their first six matches.
Jake White’s team have got past the Lions (away), Edinburgh and Connacht, and have two bonus points for scoring four tries as well.
In contrast, Glasgow have lost two out of their three encounters, losing 33-11 away to Benetton, beating Cardiff 52-24 in Scotland and then going down 32-17 to the Ospreys in Wales last weekend.
That win over Cardiff was their only triumph in their last seven URC games, which includes a 76-14 annihilation at the hands of Leinster in last season’s Dublin quarter-final.
And there’s one more factor in the visitors’ favour: the Bulls produced a 29-17 bonus-point triumph over Glasgow at Loftus Versfeld last April.
But White’s team have been far from perfect this season. They probably should have lost the Edinburgh encounter as the Scottish outfit dominated large parts of the game, and would have won if fullback Henry Immelman had slotted a late penalty.
They were understandably error-ridden in the first match against the Lions, and experimented with regular centre Wandisile Simelane at fullback, with varied success.
And then against Connacht last week, they conceded three yellow cards – Marco van Staden, Johan Goosen and Jan-Hendrik Wessels – and are ranked 15th in the URC in the discipline category, having given away 42 penalties in total (the second-most) and seven scrum offences (fifth-most).
Their defence hasn’t been the best either as they adopt a new system on White’s watch, following the departure of defence coach Joey Mongalo to the Sharks. They are ranked second-last on the tackle success list, and are the fifth-worst team with 31 turnovers lost.
“That was one of the things we just spoke about now in the change-room … There is no use talking about it – it needs to be an action, it needs to be a learning from the group,” White said about the poor discipline after the Connacht match.
“And it can’t be driven by the (coaching) staff only. It’s got to be driven from the players inside. The captain (Marcell Coetzee) now told them that we are going to sharpen up on those things – we are not just going to talk about it.
“And the players and the group will drive that discipline. We are making it harder for ourselves, because you can’t play against these teams with 14 men, even for 10 minutes. To do it for 30 minutes is asking too much.”
Despite their poor run of form in the URC, Glasgow have a good record at their Scotstoun Stadium, having lost just once there last season – 31-15 to Leinster last October.
They beat the Sharks, Lions, Dragons, Munster, Edinburgh, Ospreys, Benetton and Zebre, and have been reinforced this week by the return of lock Lewis Bean, loose forward Matt Fagerson and former Lions prop Nathan McBeth from injury.
They will be without captain and wing Kyle Steyn (hamstring) and loose forward Jack Dempsey (rib), though, and are also missing longer-term injured players such as Allan Dell (calf), Huw Jones (back), Ally Miller (back), and Rory Darge (ankle).
But like many Scottish sides, they have a few South Africans in their squad, including former Bulls lock Sintu Manjezi, ex-Stormers prop Oli Kebble and lock JP du Preez, who used to play for the Cheetahs.
So, Saturday’s clash is a potential banana peel that the Bulls must avoid slipping up on.