Wallaby and Brumbies fullback Adam Ashley-Cooper has labelled the Bulls as parasites ahead of this Saturday’s encounter with the Bulls at Loftus.

In an article published in the Canberra Times, Ashley-Cooper said “They play such a parasitic game of footy, their game plan, they just rely on putting all the pressure on you and wait for you to slip up.”

”They are parasites, as I like to describe the way they play. Morne Steyn and Fourie du Preez are such fantastic kickers so as a result, they get to play such good field position and use their dominant forwards to get over the advantage line and wait for opportunities to pop up. And then they sink their teeth in. We need to give that back to them, to master our kicking game, to play in their half, to pile the pressure on them and play how and where we want to”. continued Ashley-Cooper.

I understand what Ashley-Cooper is trying to say, the Bulls get under your skin, have a  great kicking game and wait for mistakes as a result of applying immense pressure to capitalise on. However it may be a large part of the Bulls game, but they have more attributes than that. Remember the Super 14 final last year? Did Ashley-Cooper see the 6 tries the Bulls scored last week?

Diplomacy has never been an Australian strength. I am sure the Bulls will love the red cape waved in front of them by Ashley-Cooper this week. The crowd will certainly remind him every time he touches the ball and I look forward to seeing him get smashed by the Bulls parasites! They’ll definitely stick to him and suck the life out of him!

His coach, Andy Friend was more diplomatic in assessing the challenge ahead. “The Bulls at Loftus presents a significant challenge for any side in the competition. There’s an appreciation within the side that we need to step up from where we finished last week and we’ve identified where we need to improve against a quality Bulls outfit” said Friend.

“We certainly need to be more physical in the contest and I think Rocky (Elsom) will help us achieve that. In saying that, Mitch (Chapman) was one of our hardest working forwards in the Force game but given Rocky’s returning from an injury, it made sense to put him straight into the game after the warm-up without giving him a chance to cool down on the bench” continued Friend.

I’m looking forward to a great clash and seeing blood. Brumbies blood. The Bulls are going to cause some serious damage to these okes!