Bulls outside centre Lionel Mapoe is relishing going up against the Sharks’ midfield duo of Lukhanyo Am and Rohan Janse van Rensburg when the teams meet in Saturday’s United Rugby Championship (URC) encounter in Durban.

Am and Janse van Rensburg combined brilliantly when the Sharks cruised a 37-10 victory over the Lions in Johannesburg last weekend, and Mapoe expects a tough duel against his fellow Springboks.

World class opponents

“They pose a different challenge, and I’m looking forward to playing against them. They’re some of the best centres in the world,” he said.

“We know that they are going to be physical and that they can also play with a bit of flair. There are both of those aspects, and it’s going to be tough.

“We thought the Stormers was going to be tough, but this weekend in a sense, is going to be even more physical.”

The reference to the Stormers comes after the Bulls suffered a 37-27 defeat to their arch-rivals in Cape Town last Friday.

The build-up to that match was dominated by the Pretoria-based outfit’s director of rugby Jake White‘s decision to rest his first-choice players for two Champions Cup matches against Lyon and Exeter Chiefs.

Mapoe, who was amongst those rested players, said the Bulls players supported White’s selection rotation policy.

“It worked really well for me because you get the rest you need, and it’s still a long competition,” he said.

“They’re trying to manage us to get the best out for the team, and we are buying into the coach’s plan.”

In the defeat to the Stormers, the Bulls conceded three tries in five minutes, and Mapoe said they worked hard to ensure that such lapses in concentration do not happen again.

“We went in with a plan last week that didn’t work. We let ourselves down and the fans down,” he said.

“We first have to fix ourselves and come out onto the field and go through it again with all our training.

“It’s not like we went out there on Saturday to just switch off in that period of the game where they scored three tries.

Should not have happened

“We have looked at the video, and it’s something we can manage. That shouldn’t have happened.

“It’s on ourselves to be better than what we were and not have that lapse of concentration.”

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According to L’Équipe, OGC Nice are interested in French midfielder Alexis Beka Beka (21), who currently plays his football for Russian side Lokomotiv Moscow, following a €6m move from second-tier Caen last summer.

Following an impressive 2020/21 campaign with the Norman side, Beka Beka piqued the interest of a number of clubs, with Nice being closely linked with the player this time last year. This year’s preliminary discussions between the two parties have reportedly already been conducted, however Les Aiglons are yet to make an offer for the young Frenchman, despite being one of Lucien Favre’s priorities

While the 21-year-old featured prominently for the Russian side last season, making 19 appearances and registering four assists, it is unknown whether Lokomotiv would be open to letting Beka Beka go. The midfielder, who featured in France’s disappointing Olympic campaign in Japan last summer, has already played in both of the opening matches of the new Russian season, but will be temporarily suspended following his red card this weekend.

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20 Minutes report that Ligue 1 side Nantes continue advanced negotiations with Bordeaux to sign Korean international attacker Hwang Ui-Jo following Les Girondins being maintained in the French 2nd division.

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Les Canaris’ boss, Antoine Kombouaré, has made Hwang his absolute summer transfer window priority. The two presidents, Gérard Lopez and Waldemar Kita, have an agreement in principle over a €5m transfer, but the deal has not yet been closed.

The player is having contract talks with the player, but Bordeaux also have proposals from 2 MLS clubs which are worth a little more than the €5m agreed in principle with Nantes for an eventual transfer.

Les Girondins are hoping to leverage these proposals from the United States to get Nantes to increase their proposal for €6m.

Following the decision by the FFF to maintain Bordeaux in Ligue 2, overturning the DNCG decision to relegate them for financial irregularities to the French 3rd division, Les Girondins now need to make a number of player sales.

George Russell says Mercedes should go all-in at the start of Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix and take the challenge to poleman Max Verstappen after the team’s upbeat performance in qualifying.

Thanks to a well-executed Saturday afternoon session in Melbourne, Russell will line up alongside Verstappen on Sunday’s grid with his teammate Lewis Hamilton just behind in third position.

Russell ended up just 0.236s adrift from Verstappen in the Q3 shootout, the smallest margin so far this season between Red Bull and Mercedes, and a gap that should encourage the Brackley squad to pull out the stop from the outset.

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