Jake White's Bulls aiming to break Stormers losing streak with fresh strategy

White's men, who have enjoyed a great start to the season, will travel to Cape Town with good momentum and desperate to finally get one over their rivals after six straight losses to the Stormers.

It is as big as it gets in South African rugby, with over 30,000 tickets already sold there is a classic derby atmosphere in the works.

The Bulls sit in third spot in the United Rugby Championship and look settled this season whilst for the Stormers it's been a rough start with the Capetonians down in 10th.

Adding to the intrigue of the clash is last week's Champions Cup matches that saw a weakened Bulls team lose to Lyon in France and a stacked Stormers side snatch a win from holders La Rochelle.

White is adamant that his decision to keep most of his first-choice stars at home last weekend will give the side the extra energy they need to break their losing streak against the Stormers.

"I've got no doubt it will be the difference. If you look carefully at what happened, the Stormers went to Leicester with one group, and then faced La Rochelle with a fresh group. They had to wait until the last play of the game to beat La Rochelle with their fresh players," White said.

"So, I'm hoping that this week, the fact that we've rotated, have some fresh players, didn't have to travel back and forth to France (with this week's squad) will give us some sort of extra energy - and I suppose some extra fuel in the tank for this weekend, because we know it's a massive game."

White admits the scrum is an area where the Bulls have fallen short against the Stormers in recent times but the veteran coach feels without the legendary duo of Steven Kitshoff and Frans Malherbe packing down for the Cape side it could be more even this time. The growth of his squad is also a factor in his eyes.

"One of the areas that was a bit of an Achilles heel was our scrum. At that stage, if you consider we were playing the Stormers with Kitshoff and Malherbe - who are World Cup winners - we started with a really inexperienced front row who were young," White said.

"Guys like Gerhard Steenekamp and Mornay Smith have grown as well and have become better, also become much more streetwise and a bit more experienced and understanding of the pressure.

"Then, to get acquisitions like Akker van der Merwe and Wilco Louw (who) were two missing pieces in our jigsaw puzzle. And it's not just them - Elrigh Louw is a bit older now, Marcell (Coetzee) coming back from overseas ¦ Our squad has definitely got a couple more strings to our bow.

"I'm not saying we are the complete deal yet - we are far from that - but I am a lot more confident that in areas where we were exposed or could become better, we definitely improved.

"I can say verbatim from the team psychologist Henning Gericke that we are in a wonderful place. We've got a really great mindset, and the players are really looking forward to the game.

"He spent last week working with them as well while we were away, talking about the next block of games, and he is very confident. I trust him enough to know that he's got a gut feeling for where the team are at this present moment."

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