Bulls focus on defence as they make three enforced changes

Vodacom Bulls coach Johan Ackermann has been forced to make three changes to his side to face champions Leinster in their round two Vodacom United Rugby Championship clash at Loftus Versfeld this weekend, and immediately warned that a similar performance to their opening win over the Ospreys last week won’t be good enough this time around.

Ackermann has been forced to bring in a replacement for Springbok lock Cobus Wiese, who is suffering from concussion, while young winger Cheswill Jooste is out with a hamstring strain. Jan Serfontein has a groin strain and will also miss the clash.

That means recruit and Springbok Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg gets his first start under Ackermann, while Stravino Jacobs replaces Jooste and Harold Vorster comes in for Serfontein in the injury enforced changes.

On the bench, Janse van Rensburg’s elevation means Sintu Manjezi moves into the match day 23.

But while the Bulls scored over 50 points against the Ospreys, they conceded way too many in a high-scoring clash. Ackermann was adamant that a repeat would open the door for Leinster to take the points on offer, something he doesn’t want to see.

“I really hope the defence is better,” Ackermann said, “because it wasn’t good to concede so many points. I thought we scored some good tries but some of those we let in were on the soft side and we know Leinster is one of the best, if not the best team in the competitions. They will definitely finish you if you give them the same opportunities.

“We have focused a lot this week on tightening up and hopefully it shows.”

Ackermann said that the defensive problems against the Ospreys were probably more to do with the Bulls preparation, which he has been publicly unhappy with ahead of the season.

“We didn’t have a lot of warm-up games and not a lot of contact in our training sessions either, that was probably my fault, and we could have had more contact before we went into games.

“I guess at the back of my mind it was a case of having limited options in certain positions because of an injury point of view and didn’t want to risk losing more players.

"Leinster will give us other challenges that the Ospreys didn’t and if our defence isn’t good we will pay. You can’t afford to give Leinster a 12-0 lead early on and think you are going to come back.”

Ackermann added that he expected Leinster to be smarting from their 35-0 loss to the Stormers and believed they would bounce back.

VODACOM BULLS: Devon Williams; Sebastian de Klerk, David Kriel, Harold Vorster, Stravino Jacobs; Keagan Johannes, Embrose Papier; JJ Theron, Celimpilo Gumede, Marcell Coetzee (captain), JF van Heerden, Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg, Mornay Smith, Johann Grobbelaar, Gerhard Steenekamp.

REPLACEMENTS: Juann Else, Alulutho Tshakweni, Francois Klopper, Sintu Manjezi, Nama Xaba, Zak Burger, Stedman Gans, Willie le Roux.