Bulls have something to build on
Bulls coach Nollis Marais lamented his side’s poor scrum and laid the 37-24 defeat they suffered to the Stormers at Newlands on Saturday squarely on setpiece deficiencies.
The Bulls were blown off the park in the first half‚ trailing 240 at the break‚ largely because the Stormers bullied their scrum and lineout so savagely that it was hard to watch at times.
“If you’re 24-0 down at halftime‚ it could become 50 points quickly‚ so I was happy with some of the character shown‚ but it wasn’t a good performance from us at all‚” Marais said. “I put the first half down to loss of setpieces — we lost lineouts and we were dominated in the scrums. And on attack, we lost the ball several times and they made us pay through quick-tap penalties or good kicks in behind us.
“Rugby still comes down to doing the basics well – dominating scrums and lineouts and making fewer mistakes. I can’t put my finger on exactly why we struggled so much in the scrum‚ I’d like to see the video first before making a definitive comment. We had some chances‚ but the last pass let us down very often. We made small errors‚ but they are also not huge things to fix. We will still be positive going into next week.
“At halftime I asked the guys to show character and stick to the plan‚ because at 24-0 down you can get loose. They did that and we stuck in well‚ so that second half gives us some momentum for next weekend.”
Captain Handré Pollard‚ who didn’t have a good match as he struggled from the kicking tee and in general play‚ acknowledged that his performance was below par. But he also praised his team for not folding after the first half.
Pollard only landed one of four kicks at goal‚ in a roundly frustrating display from the Bok pivot after a 13-month lay-off due to knee ligament damage.
“It’s not easy standing behind the poles three times in the first half‚ but I reminded the players to stick to the plan and that’s what we did in the second half‚” Pollard said. “We didn’t do anything special after the break.
“We didn’t lose faith in the plan and I enjoy the challenge of leading. A flyhalf is usually a leader on the field anyway.
“Personally, it was great to be back on the field‚ but my performance was not good enough – I’ll have to be better.
“I didn’t have any issues with my knee when it came to goalkicking‚ I just kept hanging the kicks out to the right‚ so I’m going to have to work a bit harder,” he said.
Marais said that he would make changes for this week’s away fixture against the Cheetahs as part of a pre-tournament plan, while lock Lood de Jager will miss the match against his former team in Bloemfontein.
“Lood has concussion and will definitely miss next week’s game‚ but I will make changes‚” Marais said.
“Warrick Gelant will start at fullback and Jesse Kriel will be on the bench. Lizo Gqoboka will also start at loosehead, with Pierre Schoeman dropping to the bench.
“After that, we will start rotating. We have a lot of class players and we will need our depth because it’s a long season.” /