Rassie must get thinking cap on

The Lions’ emphatic performance at Loftus Versfeld last weekend should have given new Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus plenty to ponder.

It wasn’t so much their convincing win over the Bulls which was that much of a surprise but the manner in which they did it.

Overpowering the Bulls with their own recipe on the way to scoring four maul tries – the last one a penalty try after the Bulls couldn’t find an answer to the stampeding Lions – was a sight to behold for the Loftus faithful.

What was even more astonishing was that the stats revealed after the game that it was in fact the Bulls who made more metres with ball in hand, conceded less penalties and even had the better in territory and possession stakes.

But the Lions simply did more damage when they were in possession and applied the golden rule by building scoreboard pressure despite the Bulls’ comeback which saw them tying the scores at 21-21 shortly after the break.

Erasmus did remark earlier that the Boks would adopt the game plan of the team who performs the best in Super Rugby, so if the Boks adopt the Lions game plan it wouldn’t leave too many people disappointed.

But it’s not just the Lions game plan which currently make them such an awkward team to play against, but their ability to vary their game plan and simply don’t run the ball at all costs, but apply a composure to their approach which had been nursed and perfected for three years.

Even the gamble of using Franco Mostert at blindside flank paid off handsomely after the idea was discussed between Erasmus and Lions coach Swys de Bruin.

While it could help Erasmus with more options at No 7, it provided De Bruin with the valuable opportunity to ensure workhorse Kwagga Smith – even ahead of such a major game – did not have to take the N1 from Johannesburg to Pretoria.

De Bruin admitted that the idea to target the lineouts and to use that as a platform for their almost unstoppable driving maul was the plan from the start, but it’s not to say it will work every time as teams will start analysing that and start working on counter-moves to neutralise the danger.

But the Bulls probably erred in not going for the sack which is allowed if it’s done immediately after the lineout and before the maul has been formed otherwise the referee would blow it up for pulling the maul down.