Springboks legends Schalk Burger and Jean de Villiers have issued a warning to Northampton Saints ahead of their Champions Cup clash with the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.

The highly anticipated encounter between the 2023/24 Premiership champions and United Rugby Championship runners-up is set to take place in searing hot conditions as most of the northern parts of South Africa have been experiencing a heatwave since last week.

The temperature is expected to reach a high of 31 degrees Celsius in Pretoria on Saturday and with the clash between the Bulls and Northampton set to kick off at 3pm, it could be a long day at the office for Phil Dowson’s charges.

Difficult to adapt to the weather conditions

Burger and De Villiers appeared on the Boks Office podcast along with the show’s host former Springboks hooker Hanyani Shimange and they all agreed that it’s going to be very difficult for Northampton to adapt to the weather conditions.

“It’s going to be a life-changing experience for them,” said Shimange. To which Burger replied: “Me and Jean once played a semi-final there in November and we came from Cape Town, which was hot.

“It was a 1pm kick-off against the Bulls U21, a semi-final of the U21 comp. There were 52 people watching us.”

De Villiers then mentioned how tough it was in conditions of extreme heat.

“It was 52 degrees as well,” he said.

Burger revealed how one of his team-mates battled to cope with the weather before eventually departing the field in the first half.

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“We had a prop who was subbed in for someone and I ran next to him and three minutes in, he was telling me, ‘Schalk, I think I’m seeing dead people on the field.’

“He lasted all of 25 [minutes] before getting taken off, it was the hottest day. If they get one of those days in Pretoria, it’s going to be a long, long day.”

Northampton have struggled in the Premiership this season and De Villiers can’t see them beating the Bulls in their backyard.

“They’re not going well this year, they’re quite low down on the log. Definitely the Bulls [to win],” he said.

“Playing at altitude it takes a bit of adapting to and not a lot of those players would have player there before, it’s not like the URC where you come over every year.

“It will be a tough one for them.

“Then again conditions will suit them, they’ve got a nice attacking game so that will certainly help them and they will enjoy that.

“It’s all about what start the Bulls get. Can they get dominance from a set-piece point of view and if they get a good lead I think it’s one-way traffic.”

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Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/i-think-im-seeing-dead-people-ex-springboks-warn-bulls-opponents-about-life-changing-pretoria-conditions