Marais is down, but he’s not out
THE grey skies on Thursday summed up the atmosphere at Kirkness Street, where the Bulls are psychologically out of sorts.
Trying to figure out why the season has gone pear-shaped before the halfway mark was as baffling as the unseasonal autumn rains.
At least their coach Nollis Marais finds inspiration in his mentor, former Bulls and Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer.
Meyer was the first coach to go through a season (2002) winless while also being the first South African coach to win the tournament. Marais has a feeling things will get better.
“I didn’t know I was going to have two months of hell after I said May was going to be a month of hell but at least we’re going to be at home for a long stretch, have a break after the Cheetahs game then face the New Zealand sides along with the Lions . . . it doesn’t help looking down the line when we have to take each game as it comes,” Marais said.
“Meyer told me there are ups and downs in coaching and I just need to get over this. At least now we don’t have any serious travelling so we can focus on what we need to do at home. Players respond differently to pressure when they’re travelling as compared to when they’re at home.”
With the amount of talent at Marais’s disposal, the outcry over the indifferent results is justified.
With Handré Pollard, Jesse Kriel, Warrick Gelant and Jan Serfontein on their books, the Bulls were expected to make light work of the Cheetahs and the Sunwolves while giving the New Zealand teams a run for their money.
That hasn’t happened and the unexpected loss in Tokyo last week capped what has been a difficult period for the most decorated South African Super Rugby franchise.
Worse depths have been plumbed but those came at the beginning of Meyer’s dynasty. That was built on sustained Currie Cup success which translated into Super Rugby glory.
While the Bulls were not exactly on firm territory when Marais replaced Frans Ludeke, he should have done better with his available resources.
But Marais doesn’t want to worry himself about the white noise with regard to his coaching ability.
“When you’ve lost the matches we’ve lost so far, everyone is going to question your coaching ability. I know I’m a very good coach and I’ve been put in this position for a very good reason. It doesn’t matter what other people say. The board of directors believes in me,” Marais said.