The Bulls poised to meet Leinster’s challenge head on

If the sentiment in the Bulls squad could be shrink wrapped it would be something like ‘there has been a lot of road between September and here’. Those winter months that have turned to spring and summer and Bulls captain Marcel Coetzee talks like his team has been nourished by the changing seasons.

They are not what they were over nine months ago when Josh van der Flier, Andrew Porter, James Tracy and Ross Byrne ran in tries in Leinster’s 31-3 win as the two teams breathed life into a new United Rugby Championship (URC) season. Round one in Aviva Stadium was bonus points and easy South African pickings.

Ulster’s former standout backrow and The Bulls current captain, Coetzee is happy to use Leinster’s win as a stick to gently beat his team into the role of underdogs for Friday’s semi-final in the RDS. The difference between then and now is Coetzee and World Cup-winning coach Jake White have arrived in Dublin with wins from nine of their last 10 URC games.

“If you take the context of when we played that first game, there was some youngsters who never experienced Ireland and also playing away,” says Coetzee. “Particularly teams like Leinster. I think it was a big shock to a lot of the guys.

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“We also just came up from a Currie Cup as well. We’ve grown exponentially during the tournament. You’ve seen boys become men and guys playing exceptional rugby and already grown in the URC which is very beneficial not just for the Bulls for all the other teams I feel.”

There is not much Coetzee does not know about Leinster or Leinster about Coetzee. In his last season in Belfast, he was was the 2020-21 joint top try-scorer with nine tries and that year’s Pro14 Players’ Player of the Season. His was one of the names Leo Cullen used last week after Glasgow to highlight the arriving threats, not just his dynamic strength but his offloading ability that has been compared to that of All Black, Sonny Bill Williams.

Five seasons of travelling to Dublin and almost beating Leinster in 2019 in Aviva Stadium has also given him some immunity to their reputation. Ross Byrne kicked a 71st minute penalty to win the Champions Cup quarter-final with number 8 Coetzee, Jordi Murphy and Nick Timoney in the Ulster backrow.

“The thing with Leinster, I think, is they play with incredible tempo,” says Coetzee. “They also play an expansive brand of rugby, guys running onto the ball. You are going to put yourself under pressure. They try to outwork their opponents.

“You see the [Irish] international team as well. They have a very high tempo. The ball is not long at the breakdown so it’s all about preparing for that, backing your system. Our defence system has been looking after us well. It is still far from perfect but we’re striving to be better every day.

“By coming up against a team like Leinster you can’t allow them to give that quick pace on the ball with the playmakers they have in the back line, the likes of Johnny Sexton, Garry Ringrose. They do their magic you know.”

Comfortable talking up his opponents, he also knows the Bulls are capable of “applying some shots” on Leinster. Like them their squad is also peppered with international players. But it’s likely they won’t try to outplay them at their own game. The Bulls may look more closely to La Rochelle than the eye-catching 12-try win over Glasgow that cost coach Danny Wilson his job on Monday.

“I think whenever you play playoffs the pillars of your success are set pieces,” says Coetzee. “If your set piece functions on the day that is something you can work from. It can help you get in the right areas. I’ll tell you we will be working very hard on our set pieces for this game.

“We have been doing well in that department this season. We just need to continue building that. Still a lot of ‘fixables’ identified against the Sharks. But we will work on that this week. In any playoff team when you play on the other side the set pieces need to function. It just helps you get in the right areas like how we got that last drop goal [last week v Sharks]. It started off on a penalty. We got our lineout functioning and we managed to build on that. Like La Rochelle did against Leinster.”

He has played 26 times for South Africa but at 31-years-old has won only one major trophy, the Currie Cup last year with the Bulls. Now, the possibility of a first South African team winning the URC suggests significant motivation is coming north at Leinster. Coetzee’s message loud and clear. They are coming as equals.

“We are going to go all for it,” he says. “You don’t make the playoff to just cruise around. Its business and we are looking forward to it. It’s a great challenge playing against Leinster and it shows you where you can measure yourself as a team and as an individual. Like I said they have got great players all around the park. It is a great time to see where we stand and hopefully get to qualify for a final.”

It didn’t look that way last Autumn. But here they are.