No pressure on Bulls from outside - Jake White

Cape Town - The biggest challenge facing the Bulls in Saturday’s United Rugby Championship clash against the Lions at Loftus Versfeld (3pm kickoff) may not be the opposition, but rather themselves.

Having romped to a comfortable 34-10 victory against the same opponents at Ellis Park last weekend, it would be understandable if the Bulls think that it would be another easy ride in Pretoria on Saturday.

They seemed to regain their physical prowess and their touch on attack in Johannesburg, and coach Jake White has kept faith with most of the starting XV when he named his team yesterday, with the only change being Zak Burger coming in at scrumhalf in place of Embrose Papier.

White feels that Burger needs some game time after Papier had a number of starts, while the Springbok halfback is expected to make a significant impact off the bench too.

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“They’re a bit different in that Zak probably gets to the breakdowns a bit quicker, and gets the ball away quicker. Emmie is obviously very quick, and with ball-in-hand, he likes to snipe,” the former Bok coach said yesterday.

“Again, it will be quite interesting to see what he does off the bench, when players are a little bit more fatigued – maybe it’s an opportunity to find a couple of holes at the back-end of the game.”

Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen picked a new-look backline, where goal-kicking ace Tiaan Swanepoel will run the show at flyhalf, while Ruhan Straeuli replaces the injured Willem Alberts at lock.

Swanepoel’s booming boot has the ability to slot kicks from inside his own half, so the Bulls must be wary of conceding too many penalties. “I think it’s impressive – hopefully we don’t give