Being the underdogs against Chiefs will give Bulls ‘more freedom’ to play
PRETORIA: The Bulls will certainly go into tomorrow’s Super Rugby clash against the Chiefs in Hamilton as the underdogs and they would not have it any other way, according to Springbok lock Lood de Jager.
Coming off two consecutive defeats and having last won in New Zealand in 2013, the Bulls have what seems to be an insurmountable challenge against the Chiefs, but it could just be the motivation the men from Pretoria need to carve out an unlikely victory.
“It definitely doesn’t surprise me at all. People always write you off coming to New Zealand because their franchise rugby is so strong. Coming here you are always the underdog and it is going to give us more freedom to go out there and play, we have nothing to lose. We have our backs against the wall a bit, so we can go out and express ourselves and try to get a win on Friday,” said De Jager.
But besides the bad record South African teams have when playing in the Land of the Long White Cloud, the Bulls haven’t aided their cause after their loss against the Reds last weekend.
It is becoming increasingly obvious that the Bulls are going through growing pains with different aspects of their game being exposed in the match.
Against the Lions it was the failings of the line-outs that led to their loss, while against the Reds the Bulls failed to get dominance in the scrums and lacked killer instinct on attack.
“You can’t compete in a high-level competition if your set-piece doesn’t function. I think our line-outs, scrums and mauls with our line-outs against the Lions cost us a couple of tries and last week against the Reds our scrum wasn’t up to par and we conceded a couple of penalties there. We will definitely try and rectify that and have a solid set-piece going into the next couple of games,” said De Jager.
De Jager admits that the loss in Brisbane was not the way in which the Bulls wanted to start their tour, but they have done sufficient preparation this week to stand them in good stead to challenge the Chiefs.
“We wanted to start the tour on a good note with a win, but we’ve put that behind us. We are looking forward to this weekend, it is going to be a massive challenge against the Chiefs but we will prepare well and hopefully it goes well,” he said.
De Jager is showing glimpses of the form that made him the best player in SA in 2015, and he has attributed his turn around in form to John Mitchell and the Bulls’ ball-inhand approach.
“I think a guy like Mitchell definitely plays a massive role in that. He spoke to me earlier in the year and he said he just wants me to play and not worry too much about making mistakes,” De Jager said.