The Currie Cup for us is about getting confidence back, says John Mitchell

The Currie Cup offers an opportunity for the Blue Bulls Rugby Union to regain confidence and start playing winning rugby again after a disastrous Super Rugby campaign‚ according to new attack coach John Mitchell.

Mitchell‚ who arrived at Loftus on Monday to take over as their Super Rugby coach‚ will be assisting coach Nollis Marais during the Currie Cup campaign set to get underway with a tricky trip to the Griquas in Kimberley on Saturday.

“The Currie Cup for us is about getting confidence back and playing winning rugby‚" he said at Loftus on Thursday when Marais announced the squad for the Griquas match.

"Those are our priorities but that is very much short term‚ we will concentrate on the controllables.

"In the long term‚ we have the responsibility for player development and to develop our depth heading into next year’s Super Rugby.

"It is very much two-fold but the first one is our priority.”

Mitchell has been working with the Bulls players this week and he is impressed with their attitude and energy.

“The players’ attitude has been wonderful and they have showed good energy over the past three days or so‚" Mitchell said.

"Through the extension of head coach‚ I have been able to offer new ideas on a few tweaks here and there. That has been good and the guys are open to change and to new ideas.

"You can’t do everything overnight but it is about updating." Looking ahead of the clash‚ Marais said he picked a good team with a mixture of youth and experienced players who have played Super Ruby before in their careers.

Boom Prinsloo will make his tournament debut as captain.

“I think it is a good side‚ there are a lot of guys who have played Super Rugby before and there is a good mixture between youth and experience.

"Some of the younger players also have Super Rugby experience and it is going to be an interesting campaign for us.

“It’s a new challenge and new beginnings or us which it’s good because we played our last three Super Rugby matches for pride and now we are in a competition where we can play for other reasons.

"The guys are looking forward to the challenge and there is good spirit in the camp.

"Last year we had a two or three week’s break before moving from one competition to the next but the guys are looking forward to playing on Saturday.”

Blue Bulls: 15. Warrick Gelant‚ 14. Travis Ismaiel‚ 13. Franco Naude‚ 12. Burger Odendaal‚ 11. Duncan Matthews‚ 10. Tony Jantjies‚ 9. Piet van Zyl‚ 8. Nic de Jager‚ 7. Jannes Kirsten‚ 6. Boom Prinsloo (capt)‚ 5. Abongile Nonkontwana‚ 4. Ruben van Heerden‚ 3. Conraad van Vuuren‚ 2. Jaco Visagie‚ 1. Pierre Schoeman

Substitutes: 16. Jan-Henning Campher‚ 17. John-Roy Jenkinson‚ 18. Freddy Ngoza‚ 19. Shaun Adendorff‚ 20. Andre Warner‚ 21. Tinus de Beer‚ 22. JT Jackson

- TimesLIVE