A tour of make or break for Bulls
THE chief is back and with him comes the promise of better results, but it is how the Bulls play in New Zealand that will make or break their season.
Bulls captain Adriaan Strauss made a winning return to the team from injury as his team registered their first win of the season against the Sunwolves last week at Loftus Versfeld.
That will be insignificant if his team doesn’t kick on and beat the Blues and Chiefs on their short but tough tour to New Zealand.
Strauss is likely to lead the team in their match against the Blues in Auckland on Saturday, taking over the reins from Handre Pollard who is struggling to regain the form he enjoyed before shoulder and ankle injuries kept him out of the game for all of last year.
Former Springbok captain Strauss wants his team to focus only on the Blues and not to think too far ahead to what might be.
Meanwhile, they must look to nullify the errors of their ways that saw them lose to the Stormers and Cheetahs at the beginning of the season.
“It is true that this tour can make or break us, but we will have to take it week by week. You can’t, at the beginning of the season, look at the fixture list and choose which games you will do well and which you won’t do well,” Strauss said.
“We will fight in every game and for every point. We let ourselves down in the first three matches of the season and we have a lot of work to do and the time is now – we have to quickly rectify things.
“I believe we did a lot of hard work in the pre-season and it is the small things that we must work on to get the results.”
There were glimpses during the game against the Sunwolves, says Struass, that has made him confident that his team can come good and do so quickly.
It will require patience and religiously sticking to and executing their game-plan, especially against the high intensity with which the New Zealand teams play in the competition.
“It is a massive opportunity and we showed in the game against the Sunwolves, especially in the first half, that we created a lot of pressure.
“We played a lot of rugby in their half but we just couldn’t finish. We had a couple of lineout mauls that we needed to finish and when we got the turnover ball and got the line breaks, we knocked on a few balls where we could have held on to that and even build more pressure.
“So the plan is there and it is working when we are executing it well, we just need to be more clinical and we need to build phases,” said Strauss.
On paper the Bulls have one of the best teams in the competition and they have amassed a healthy balance of experience and talented youngsters who will become household names in the future.
Strauss sees the same potential to contend for top honours in his team, but concedes that they have not played anywhere near their potential.
“They are a rugby country and all of their unions play great rugby, so it is a challenge for us.
“We are also confident in what we can do. We haven’t achieved our potential and we haven’t even touched on the way we want to play for the season.
“But we are growing as a team and I believe we will get there. We’ve got a lot of hard work to put in and we are excited about being on tour, but we also know it is going to be tough.”