Bulls coach Marais treads carefully as Crusaders showdown looms

The Crusaders will be without two key players when they face the Bulls at Loftus Stadium on Saturday but coach Nollis Marais is not taking any chances.

Crusaders lock Sam Whitelock is suspended while All Blacks captain and No.8 Kieran Read is injured.

But Marais said he expects the visitors to still be powerful and dangerous as the Bulls go in search for only their fourth win of the season against the unbeaten New Zealanders.

It will not be easy for the Bulls because the Crusaders have crushed everything in front of them with a perfect record of nine wins from as many matches to gain the respectable tag of the best team in the competition.

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Whitelock has been banned for two weeks after striking Cheetahs prop Charles Marais with his arm in Bloemfontein while Read is recovering from a thumb injury that he sustained in the same game last weekend.

“I read somewhere where someone was saying that it is a morale booster for the Bulls because the two will not be playing‚" Marais said.

"I just laughed after reading that article.

"If you look at the first four or five games of the season for the Crusaders‚ (Kieran) Read did not play.

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"But they beat everybody because they have good enough players in the team to win matches without any of their star players.”

Marais said there are about eight to nine players in his team who have not played against a New Zealand side and about ten who have not played against the Crusaders.

“They are great players but the team has enough depth to be able to compete at this level and beat anyone.

"But‚ we don’t want to focus too much on that because we knew last week already that they will not be there.

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"You have to be technically good when you play against them .

"But we have a plan and we know exactly what we want to do.

"It is about being accurate.”

Bulls captain Adriaan Strauss added that as players they don’t need any motivation to play against the Crusaders.

“There are no words needed to motivate the players because honestly I feel this is the most excited the team has been throughout the whole season‚" he said.

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"You can really feel that this is a big game.

"We know that we are up against a team that is unbeaten this season but we are looking forward to it.

"They have always had great individuals and they have a reputation of being one of the most successful teams throughout the changes of the competition.

"It is one of the biggest teams to play against and it gives an opportunity for guys to measure and gauge themselves against the best.”

- TMG Digital/TMG Sport