‘ Marais’ ‘ men in ‘learning ‘ curve’win

IT DOESN’T come bigger than the north versus south derby in Currie Cup rugby and the Blue Bulls will begin this week feeling confident that they have the upper hand over their old rivals and defending champions Western Province.

The Bulls were hardly given a chance in this year’s Currie Cup campaign with all the turmoil which led to the departure of long-time coach Frans Ludeke, backline coach Pieter Rossouw and a handful of experienced players.

But after two bonus point wins that have elevated them to the top of the log, the men in blue have not only set the early pace in the competition but they could well be on the march to proving their detractors wrong in respect of their title hopes.

Their start to the competition may have raised some eyebrows after they demolished the much-vaunted Free State Cheetahs in Bloemfontein two weeks ago, but Blue Bulls coach Nollis Marais feels that the team grew and learnt much more from their 36-12 win over Griquas at Loftus Versfeld on Friday.

The Bulls were made to sweat by a determined Griquas who held their own in the first half but it was the calmness under pressure and the ability to wrestle the game into their control that was particularly impressive for Marais.

Having trailed 12-6 at halftime, the Bulls put together an authoritative last 20 minutes in which they scored four tries while also managing to prevent Griquas from accumulating any points in the second half.

“In the beginning we played very good rugby, we just didn’t get the reward because we tried to force too many things. I think it was a good learning curve for the boys on how to play in different situations especially when you’re on the back foot and how to create space from that situation,” Marais said.

Blue Bulls captain Lappies Labuschagne believes that the win over the Griquas will stand them in good stead ahead of their biggest game so far this season.

“I think this game helped build the character of this team. We dealt well with a difficult situation in the first half when we were under pressure and we managed to come through that. The guys really showed character to come back after half-time and they also remained calm throughout and in the last 20 minutes everything worked for us,” said Labuschagne.

The Bulls will take plenty of comfort that they have found a winning formula to their new expansive approach to the game and the fact that they have the players that thrive on giving the ball some air.

Going into this week Marais will again look to maintain continuity in his team selection but could be hampered by injuries to Deon Stegmann, Dean Greyling and William SmallSmith. Stegmann is likely to be out of action for over a month with a suspected cracked cheekbone which he sustained early in the match on Friday while Greyling is struggling with a leg injury and Small-Smith took a knock to the head which is suspected to be a concussion.