Rugby: Matfield promises more from Bulls

Bulls captain Victor Matfield (R). Photo / Getty Images

PRETORIA - Bulls captain Victor Matfield has insisted the reigning Super 14 champions are aiming to improve on its dominant season in 2009.

The Bulls named a strong team to face South African rival the Cheetahs in the first round of the 2010 competition on Saturday (NZT), with 14 of the players who won the tournament last year in the Bulls' starting lineup for the trip to Bloemfontein.

Matfield feels that last year's victorious campaign, where the Bulls won 12 of its 15 games and overpowered the Chiefs 61-17 in the final, will motivate the Pretoria-based outfit for the upcoming tournament.

"We all strive to improve. It is a fact that 2009 was a remarkable season, but the work ethic at the Bulls does not allow you to rest on your laurels," Matfield told South African newspaper Beeld.

"We want to be the team with the best lineouts, we want the best scrum in the competition, and we want to play more positive rugby from broken play. I can continue, but what it boils down to is that we will never be satisfied," Matfield said. The 32-year-old Matfield will play his 96th game in the competition when he leads his team out against the Cheetahs.

The Bulls scrum will also benefit from the return of hooker Gary Botha who will start after returning from a two-year stint at English Premiership club Harlequins. Botha will play his 50th game for the Bulls.

The formidable Bulls starting 15 also includes Springboks Zane Kirchner, Wynand Olivier, Morne Steyn, 2009 South African Player of the Year Fourie du Preez, Pierre Spies, Danie Russouw and Gurthro Steenkamp.

Bulls coach Frans Ludeke has picked three former Cheetahs players - Jacques-Louis Potgieter, Bees Roux and Flip van der Merwe - on his bench but he does not think their inside knowledge will give his team an advantage in the South African showdown.

Ludeke told the Bulls' official website: "The local teams know each other so well by know, there is actually not much to tell. The Cheetahs and Bulls always seem to bring out the best in each other, as was seen in the last couple of years. Both want to dominate and that is no secret."

Potgieter was the Cheetahs' star first five-eighths last year in the country's domestic Currie Cup competition where he led his team to the final, only for the Cheetahs to be beaten by the Bulls.

The Bulls are the only South African team to have triumphed in the Super 14 competition, and Ludeke's team has won two of the last three tournaments.

Elsewhere in the opening round of Super 14 fixtures, the Lions face the Stormers in Johannesburg on Sunday in another all-South African contest with doubts still surrounding the fitness of Stormers captain and South African international flanker Schalk Burger.

Burger injured his shoulder after just 14 minutes of the Stormers' final warm-up game against a Boland XV in Cape Town on Sunday. The 26-year-old did not train yesterday but Stormers coach Allister Coetzee is expected to name the Springbok loose forward in the starting line-up for the game at Coca-Cola Park.

Coetzee also has the advantage of calling on the services of South Africa's World Cup winning stars Bryan Habana and Jaque Fourie who both joined the Stormers in the off-season. Winger Habana was part of the triumphant Bulls team last year. Springbok centre Fourie will return to his former home ground on Sunday after leaving the Lions following a contract dispute.

Dick Muir takes charge of the Lions in a Super 14 match for the first time after the current South Africa backline coach took over from Eugene Eloff as head coach in November 2009. The Lions finished 12th of 14 teams in last year's competition, while the Stormers ended in 10th place.

Three-time losing finalists the Sharks begins its 2010 campaign with a home game in Durban against last year's runners-up the Chiefs.

The Sharks' build up to its opener at the ABSA Stadium has been interrupted contract disputes involving number eight forward Willem Alberts and fullback Louis Ludik.

The Lions union claimed in January that both players, who have been involved in the Sharks' Super 14 preparations, are contracted to them until the end of 2010. On Wednesday a South African Rugby Union judicial officer said he could not rule on the validity of the players' contracts with the Lions.

This year is the final year of the Super 14. The southern hemisphere's club rugby competition expands to 15 teams in 2011 with the addition of a fourth Australian franchise, the Melbourne Rebels.

- AP