No messing about wiith Mitchell's Bulle

I will really be surprised if the Bulle don't improve significantly this season under Mitchell.  I would like to see them winning in nz and not only at Loftus.

The Vodacom Bulls will have a full pre-season ahead before they head into this year’s Vodacom Super Rugby competition, having added a fourth pre-season game to their schedule against the Jaguares at Loftus Versfeld on 10 February.

Coach John Mitchell and his conditioning team have been hard at work in the pre-season, sweating it out in the heatwave that has settled over their Pretoria base at the moment, and it is clear that Mitchell wants to have enough chance to assess his squad ahead of a tough Super Rugby competition lying ahead.

While their derby against the Stormers at the Stub Hub Centre in Los Angeles on 3 February probably is seen as one of their biggest pre-season games, the return to South Africa to face the Jaguares a week before the start of the competition will be an interesting one to see how they use their wider squad.

Before the Los Angeles game, the Bulls will play two games on January 27 – one against the Emirates Lions in Johannesburg while the other one will be in Polokwane against the Cell C Sharks on the same day.

The Los Angeles game is part of a double header in the US, featuring the US National team against an Argentine XV in the other game as the Bulls look to take their brand to new markets.

Bulls pre-season fixtures

27 January v Emirates Lions, Johannesburg

27 January v Cell C Sharks, Polokwane

3 February v DHL Stormers, Los Angeles

10 February v Jaguares, Loftus Versfeld.

The Lion game should show him something although it's a very early. I expect the Bulls to improve a lot as long as Mitchell isn't undermined by some of those devious SA folks.

No doubt the Bulls will improve out of sight. The only Yarpie Super Rugby teams that have ever come close to competing with the New Zealand franchises are the ones coached by Kiws like Laurie Mains and John Plumtree.

I like what I saw in the CC comp after Mitchell took over.   Watch out for a few Bulls players - Jackson (centre), Pollard and  Van Zyl (scrummie),

I think Pollard will get back to his best and that Mitchell will knock the sh!t - drummed in bu Ludeke and Meyer - out of him. .    

Bulls have a few injuries as do most teams. These were listed in Rugby 365:

"Ruan Steenkamp had surgery on his pectoral muscle and knee, while Ivan van Zyl is making steady progress with his shoulder injury.

Hendrè Stassen, Corniel Els and Jannes Kirsten are continuing with their rehabilitation and are expected to return at the end of January.

Gerhard Steenekamp (scope to the knee) and JT Jackson (groin) will return to training in two weeks.

Shaun Adendorff picked up a niggle late last year and should be fit next week.

Players who have been cleared to train are Jaco Visagie, Dries Swanepoel, Jamba Ulengo and Lizo Gqoboka."

JW

Thanks for the info - if Van Zyl is still off at the start of the season - watch ou t for Papier.

Ka Mate, you are delusional. The Yarpies were quite used to kicking Kiwi but before politics fcked everything up...and we even managed a few victories after things got fcked up. I enjoy watching NZ sides play, but the god complex of some of the fans pisses me off. Get something better to do than gloating at Saffas when they are down. No problem when you dish it out at someone in particular, but you tend to paint all SAcans with your bigoted broad brush of ignorance. Get a life. 

...Bean Brain you need to lower yr expectations considerably.... Mitchell is only there cos he is unwanted everywhere else,  especially in NZ..

Any coach is a massive improvem,ent on Ludeke and Maria - who ruined more players than any other coach (bar perhaps Meyer and Coetzee) - than any other coach in the SH.

Brycy my good friend you have to try and understand that Mitchell was your typiical  limited kiwi coach playing kiwi netball rugby. Now however Mitchell has a much better appreciation of how real forwards can play and ought to play!!!

Hence our hope that now that Mitchell has grown as a coach due his experience in South Africa, he will help the Bulle reach new heights. Not quite as high as the Mighty Stormers of course!

Comprehende Brycy!

...Bean Brain pray tell us where and when this epiphany thou doth speaketh of happened....was it at his last gig while coaching the USA as they were getting there ass kicked by Brazil....i think you'll find what Mitchell has is the gift of the gab - all p!ss and wind,,, can't see him lasting there for long...especially given the Bulls look the weakest of all the SA franchises...

The Bulls are going to surprise many this season.

I'm rather excited to see what a proper coach can do with such a lot of talented players.

Go Mitch!! Go Bulls!!