Highlanders wary of angry Bulls

Highlanders coach Glenn Moore has warned his players of a Bulls backlash in Pretoria as they strive to improve their Super 14 standing against the bruised defending champions on Saturday.

Highlanders coach Glenn Moore has warned his players of a Bulls backlash in Pretoria as they strive to improve their Super 14 standing against the bruised defending champions on Saturday.

Moore is mindful that the Bulls will be hurting deeply after suffering a 22-50 thumping by the Hurricanes at their beloved Loftus Versfeld last weekend.

The 2007 champions have under-performed on a large scale this season, the heavy loss to the Hurricanes leaving them in 13th place on 10 points after nine rounds.

The Highlanders are just one point and two places above them, meaning both sides are scrambling for respectability in the second half of the competition.

Moore knows his team have been done little favours by the Hurricanes, predicting a hostile reception and a particularly physical challenge.

“I've told the guys already that they will be going into a very hostile environment against the Bulls,” Moore told NZPA.

“They might like you afterwards but they certainly don't beforehand.

“The Bulls themselves will be very desperate and we will be up against a team who will be very fired up.

“They are struggling at the moment and coming off the back of quite a thumping against the Hurricanes.”

Moore said the Highlanders had to stay tight as a group and stay composed.

“There's only one way to shut them (crowd) up and that's to play well and try and get on top of them.”

Moore said he and the coaching staff had slightly tweaked the team's gameplan this week to make allowance for the physical confrontation they were expecting.

“We've made some subtle changes to how we may do things,” he said.

“It's important for us that we don't try and get into a crash bang fest with them. Our focus will be on having ball in hand and attacking.

“We know they've generally got a formidable forward pack and that they like to get involved in the physical encounter of the game.

“We also know if you can dominate and start penetrating that they can get a bit frustrated as well.”

The Highlanders are looking more confident by the week and several of their young players have finally found their feet at this level.

Provided the hex stays in Dunedin, they just might win in Pretoria.