Luan Giliomee to get Bulls start in Champions Cup opener against Stade Francais

Exciting South African under-20 star Luan Giliomee will make his Bulls debut in their Champions Cup opener against Stade Français at Loftus on Saturday.

Recently signed from the Sharks, Giliomee will start at fullback in a powerful side where veteran Springbok flyhalf Handré Pollard dons the No 10 jersey in place of Curwin Bosch.

Giliomee had been fitting in well since his arrival in Pretoria less than two weeks ago, head coach Johan Ackermann said at a press conference on Thursday afternoon.

“He slotted in nicely. We feel he knows everything now … and we just wanted to see what he can do from that position.”

With Sebastian de Klerk, who joined the line effectively in the URC match against the Lions last weekend, and Cheswill Jooste on the wings, the Bulls have terrific pace at the back.

“It’s a combination we would like to test and to see what they can bring,” said Ackermann. “At the end of the day if it’s a nice warm day out there [the temperature is forecast to hit 32 degrees on Saturday] and we can tire them down and hopefully get these guys in a bit of space, that’s what we’re hoping for …”

“I think Paris is still decent weather, so I don’t think it’s the heat factor that will really test them, it’s more the altitude, so hopefully that will help us a bit.”

Ackermann believes the Bulls squad he has has the potential to go far in the European competition, which to date has been a tough challenge for South African franchises.

“We have to win our home games first of all because we didn’t win our [one] home game last year. We got only the one win away from home that made us scrape into the top 16 because of points difference

“If we had another win we could have at least played the round of 16 match at home…

“And the second thing is if our squad can stay healthy like it is at the moment, we can easily then manage the season … I do believe we’ve got the squad that if it’s in the state that it is now and we can get to quarterfinals, semifinals we can compete, even if we have to play away.”

The coach pointed out the team couldn’t afford to get complacent after their win over the Lions.

“The challenge is to forget about last week’s performance — that was my message to them today and Saturday is a new challenge.

“The French, if you analyse them, they bring totally different challenges. They’re so unpredictable, they score tries from anyway … they’ve got a good set-piece. They’re just a dangerous side overall so it’s up to us to reset our whole mindset and know that we have to earn the right again to win and we have to earn the right to score tries again.

“If we think we’re just going to throw the ball around and it will happen, it’s not going to happen.”

The match kicks off at 1.55pm on Saturday.

Bulls squad

15-1: Luan Giliomee, Sebastian de Klerk, Sango Xamlashe, Harold Vorster, Cheswill Jooste, Handre Pollard, Paul de Wet, Cameron Hanekom, Elrigh Louw (cap), Marco van Staden, JF van Heerden, Cobus Wiese, Khutha Mchunu, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Alu Tshakweni

Substitutes: Johan Grobbelaar, Gerhard Steenekamp, Francois Klopper, Jaco Grobbelar, Jeandre Rudolph, Embrose Papier, Stravino Jacobs, Willie le Roux

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