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CURRIE CUP

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Bulls suffer double injury-blow

Monday 02nd July 2007

The Blue Bulls, joint-defending Currie Cup champions, suffered a double injury-blow ahead of their encounter with trans-Jukskei rivals the Golden Lions in Pretoria on Saturday.

It was revealed on Monday that scrum-half Heini Adams and inside centre Dries Scholtz both picked up injuries in the Bulls' shock 18-26 loss to Griquas in Kimberley at the weekend and have been ruled out of the forthcoming fixture.

The Bulls Currie Cup machine looks to be running out of gas at scrum-half, as Adams has been ruled out for eight weeks because of a broken leg - a fracture he suffered in Kimberly.

Adams is one of the key playmakers in the Bulls set-up, who are already without Springbok Fourie du Preez (on international duty). Livewire Adams's snappy service from the base of scrums and rucks will be missed.

Bulls coach Pote Human will also have to deal with the loss of his burly inside centre, Scholtz, who fractured a bone in his hand in the encounter with Griquas.

Scholtz will be out of action for at least four weeks.

The loss of Adams does not, however, cover the full extent of Human's number nine woes - with third choice scrum-half Nicholas Eyre (groin surgery) also not available for the foreseeable future.

Adams's replacement in Kimberley, Neil Powell, will be filling the gap left by absence of the injured Emerging Springbok scrum-half, Adams, when they face the Lions.

The inexperienced Gerrie Odendaal, who came through the Bulls' junior ranks and still played Under-21 rugby last year, is set to come onto the replacements bench and could make his Currie Cup debut.

Human is the first to agree that his team is "in trouble" with a lack of real depth at scrum-half.

"He has been a stalwart and his snappy service has given much direction and momentum to our back-line play," Human told Beeld newspaper.

"However, it seems it is a clean fracture, which means his season may not be over. Early indications are that he won't be out of action for longer than eight weeks."

The Bulls coach also made it clear that he is very unhappy with the quality of his team's performance.

"It [the performance] was unacceptable. We sank ourselves by making basic mistakes," Human said.

"For the second successive match our discipline was below par. Our tactical kicking was poor and because of inadequate finishing and support play we failed to use our opportunities to score more tries."