Bulls to ring changes after poor showing
Mapimpi shines for victorious Cheetahs
IN the aftermath of his team’s defeat at the death to the Cheetahs‚ Bulls coach Nollis Marais kept referring to areas of his team’s performance as “unacceptable”.
It may force his hand into making personnel changes‚ with flyhalf Tony Jantjies to be shown the door. The flyhalf’s erratic persona came to the fore at Loftus‚ as did that of Cheetahs’ fullback Clayton Blommetjies‚ in the error ridden but wonderfully unpredictable Currie Cup clash that finished 4140 in the visiting team’s favour.
A failure to get the ball out of their 22 with time nearly up on the clock cost the Bulls.
The Cheetahs’ persistent pressure paid off when the thrilling Makazole Mapimpi completed his hat-trick and sealed the win in the 85th minute.
Jantjies chalked up the rare distinction of having two easy conversion attempts charged down in a match his team lost by a point.
“I’ll rather decline to say anything about that‚” an exasperated Marais said about Jantjies’ lackadaisical leanings.
With Springbok flyhalf Marnitz Boshoff now part of the Bulls’ fold‚ the coach may be pushed into making a switch in a key area.
What will be more difficult to fix‚ however‚ is his team’s disregard for holding their defensive lines. In a match in which the lead changed eight times‚ the Bulls found ways of letting the Cheetahs back in just when it seemed they were gaining the whip hand.
“We let in too many and they broke our line way too easy. It’s unacceptable. It’s a system thing not [the players’] attitude. We’ve got young guys. We’ve had 15 debutants and it is down to those individual errors‚” explained Marais. “We can attack. We score tries like never before but we can’t defend like this.
Another defeat at home is unacceptable. We should have killed the game off, and two conversions charged down. We should have won this game.”
Captain Burger Odendaal believes his team’s poor discipline also needs to be addressed.
“We are making it very difficult for ourselves with all the yellow cards we are getting week in and week out. That is a huge thing we have to focus on.”
The defeat has added pressure on the Bulls’ playoff prospects.
“We are about seven points off the pace. We will have to start winning a few away matches. We lost two home matches that we should‚ or could have won.
“It’s unacceptable. We can’t afford to drop any more points otherwise you start playing for fourth place, and the Lions are in the same position. It will be tough.”