Marais reads riot act and his men respond

A stern half-time pep talk by Blue Bulls coach Nollis Marais (right) led to a drastic turnaround for the men in blue in their Currie Cup clash against Western Province at Newlands on Saturday.

Although Province still won 4534, the Bulls were a transformed team after looking down the barrel trailing 42-13 at the break.

“I told the guys you can either go crawling into a corner and cry or go out and fight and play for their pride,” said Marais.

“And the guys came out and really played well so I’m very proud of them.”

Province scored all six of their tries in the first half, while the Bulls added three of their four tries in the second half.

“I actually thought we still could’ve won the game in the end if we executed better, but there were just too many missed opportunities,” said Marais.

“Credit to Province who really killed us in that first half and we are trying the whole time to change our defensive system which is a process. The guys have to front up and continue to work on it.

“The dressing-room was very quiet afterwards, but we’ve had 15 guys making their debuts in four matches,” he added.

Province coach John Dobson said discipline in the second half was a concern, but added that first half was one of the best Province performances he has seen in years.

“There were a few tough calls in the second half, but we simply didn’t have any ball. The character on defence was much improved from the Griquas game,” he said.

“We played 40 minutes with 20 of that with just 14 men and missing a guy like (centre) EW Viljoen at the start of the second half was vital.

“What we wanted to get right was our defence and our intensity in the contact areas and I think we did that.”

In Bloemfontein the Cheetahs suffered their first defeat by losing 30-25 to Griquas.