BRING IT ON

SCARRA Ntubeni and his Western Province manskap are ready to battle some friendly fire when they tackle the Bulls in their opening game of the Currie Cup Premier Division this Saturday.

The Bulls recently released their Currie Cup squad with ex-Stormer and Province flank Nama Xaba named as captain.

The Pretoria outfit also have a vrag experience with former Kaapse players Lizo Gqoboka, Marvin Orie and Junior Pokomela set to line up against their old team at Cape Town Stadium (5.10pm kickoff).

Besides Orie, who left the Stormers in 2023 to play club rugby in France, the likes of Xaba, Gqoboka and Pokomela would likely want to prove a point after being discarded by the Kaapse span in recent seasons.

Ntubeni, who announced that this year’s Currie Cup will be his last with Province, however, wysed hy en sy WP manskap skrik vir niks, and said: “There is a lot of experience as you mentioned, Junior, Nama and Lizo.

“But, that’s why we train and do a lot of analyses. We have plans… I don’t think it’s a big thing. It’s just how we are going to execute.”

The veteran WP and Stormers hooker was also full of praise after hearing his former teammate Xaba had been selected as the Bulls captain.

Ntubeni said: “Nama is a hard worker, he has always worked hard. He has been unlucky sometimes with injuries at certain points of his career.

“He is that type of leader who leads from the front. He has gotten a lot of respect from his peers in a short period at the Bulls, so I am very happy for him.”

However, Ntubeni expects his ex-WP maatjie not to make Saturday’s game too personal after being cut from the Stormers in 2024 and added: “People’s paths take different turns, he will always be close to us and we know he is going to bring it this weekend – he never goes into something half-heartedly.”