Conditioning spot on, says Gqoboka

Ken Borland

There have been a number of critics pointing to a lack of fitness as the reason behind the Bulls’ second-half fades in Super Rugby this season, but prop Lizo Gqoboka (right) said there is no problem with the conditioning of the team.

“There are no doubts about our fitness, we worked hard in New Zealand, and it’s just down to the execution of the plan.

“There’s been big progress in the set-pieces and defence, and in the attack as well, even though the results have not been what we wanted. But we are growing,” Gqoboka said from Tokyo, where the Bulls are preparing for Saturday’s must-win game against the Sunwolves.

“We have no right to underestimate anyone and the Sunwolves have made the most linebreaks this season. They’re a good side, they almost beat the Stormers, so we’re going to have to go at 100% and stick to our plan,” Gqoboka said.

The Japanese sides traditionally don’t have the same sort of gorillas up front that the South African teams do and dominating the set-pieces will be the starting point for the Bulls.

“There’s been a big improvement in our scrum from the Stormers game, we’re now winning penalties because we have a steady scrum, and our lineouts have been good too,” Gqoboka said.

“We’ve mostly played against sides that have kept ball-in-hand and applied pressure on us that way, but we’re working hard to also apply pressure by kicking into the corners and also keeping the ball in contact.”