Right mix behind Bulls resurgance
MARAIS: BALANCE ON ATTACK, DEFENCE PAID DIVIDENTS
Men from Pretoria deliver their ‘best performance of the season’ to put Sharks away convincingly in Durban.
Getting the right mix between attacking with ball-in-hand and kicking and a new defensive plan were behind the Bulls’ stunning win over the Sharks in Durban, coach Nollis Marais said yesterday.
The Bulls scored four tries, including a hat-trick by fullback Warrick Gelant, and they were full value for their 30-17 victory on Friday.
“It was a good performance, our best of the season. There was a good mix of attack and our kicking plan. We’ve also changed one or two things in our defence, which John Mitchell agreed with in our discussions, so we implemented that and thankfully it seemed to work,” Marais said yesterday.
He did not want to go on record about why he believes the team suddenly produced such an impressive showing after a thoroughly mediocre run so far, other than to say the players now bought into his plan.
“We’ve had a lot of complex discussions with the players and they now understand what I want in terms of attack and defence, they’ve bought into it. They know they haven’t played to their potential and they want to fix it,” Marais said.
While Gelant took the Man-ofthe-match award, other players shone just as much, with the forwards delivering an outstandingly physical display that harried the Sharks into mistakes and Jan Serfontein and Duncan Matthews the other standout backs.
“Back in 2015 we decided to back Warrick and his current form augurs well for his future. Jan received a confidence boost from how well he played for the Springboks and he just carried on with that, while Duncan has been excellent ever since he came into the senior side. He’s had a lot of injuries and people might have lost faith in him, but we know how good he is and he has a huge future. Kefentse Mahlo was also very good on debut,” Marais said.