BY DEAN CLOETE
THERE is only one United Rugby Championship match this weekend and it’s a big one, with South Africa’s two groot rivals the Stormers and the Bulls crossing swords at Cape Town Stadium.
The match is the rescheduled fixture from Round 1, after it clashed with the Currie Cup final on the same day.
But with it being a standalone fixture, it has the feel of a big finale with over 40 000 tickets already sold for the clash.
And Stormers wing Leolin Zas can’t wait to take the field against the men from Pretoria.
Zas, 29, says: “Playing against the Bulls is always a big game for us.
“We get a lot of energy from the fans when we play at home and after coming out of a [financially] tough January, people decided to buy tickets.
“We are fully connected to our fans and want to make that [home advantage] count.
While the Bulls could have a number of Kaapenaars in their arsenal for this weekend’s clash, one player who will not be coming home to the Mother City is Paarliet Kurt-Lee Arendse.
The former UWC ace and Springboks winger, 28, currently plies his trade in Japan with Sagamihara DynaBoars - on loan from the Bulls.
Zas, who is prepping for a peppering of high balls from the Bulls, says they won’t be weakened without KLA (as Arendse’s often referred to).
He says: “Kurt-Lee is a Springbok and he’s been scoring a lot of tries [for the Bulls], but Bulls have got other wings. I don’t think it will be a massive loss for them [in this clash].”
The Stormers are down in 12th place on the log and the Bulls in third.