Bulls will learn from final pain
Marais believes his beaten men will come back better and stronger
The disappointment was clear to see on the faces of Blue Bulls coach Nollis Marais and captain Arno Botha in the moments after their sound beating by the Cheetahs in Saturday’s thrilling Currie Cup final.
But it was Marais’ reaction after the final whistle and his players sinking in despair into the lush turf at the Free State Stadium that sent out a statement that the Bulls will be back next year better, stronger and ready to ascend to the top.
Marais was obviously not pleased with the manner in which his team performed as they were made to scramble in the defence by the unrelenting Cheetahs’ waves of attack, found themselves one man short after Jamba Ulengo got yellow carded in the seventh minute and they seemed to buckle under the pressure of playing in the final.
Saturday’s final was by far one of the Bulls’ worst performances of the season and a greater part of it was induced by the brilliance and hunger of the Cheetahs. And it is from this that Marais believes his side learnt a valuable lesson that will stand them in good stead for the future.
“Last year we ended second on the log and went on to lose at home. This year we have gone a step further and I am proud of the guys,” said Marais.
“We were definitely beaten by the better side on the day and obviously we are very disappointed. We will get back a few guys for Super Rugby next year but it was also good for the youngsters to come through and they have played well. Getting into a final would have been an experience and I’m happy that we got to the final but I am not happy about the way that we played. The guys need to learn from this and I believe they will be better for it going forward.”
Botha concurred with his coach saying that the team had grown immensely since last year’s Currie Cup campaign and that they will be heavily driven by the pain of finding themselves on the losing side when they look to stake a claim at becoming Currie Cup champions.
“We will need to look at what we missed because it was there for both teams. We went through the same thing last year and came face-to-face with the same situation this year and we were better this year. Next year we might find ourselves in the same situation with 43 000 people and we will handle it better because you’ve seen it before and you don’t want it to happen again. We are a growing team and it has been a good season for us. We are no longer in the building phase of this team and maybe it didn’t show in the final but it showed from Super Rugby to where we ended in the Currie Cup.” DESERVED WINNERS: The Cheetahs dominated the Currie Cup season this year and on Saturday they dominated the final against the Bulls and ran out worthy winners of the trophy. The Cheetahs had a number of stand-out performers. Sergeal Petersen showed his prowess yet again in the build-up to his two tries, and that break that almost led to a try for the Cheetahs (before Jamba Ulengo intervened to not only prevent a possible try but also get himself 10 minutes in the sin bin) was awesome. Skipper Francois Venter’s beautifully timed pass to put Clatyon Blommetjies away was first class. The way Fred Zeilinga weighed his options before putting Petersen away for his second was superb. Blommetjies viciously taunted the opposition’s defence with his lovely running lines. The Cheetahs deserve a gold star for not kicking possession away every chance they got. It was an absolute delight seeing kicks mostly in the form of good grubbers or little dinks over the top. The Bulls weren’t bad either, even if we saw quite a few fumbled clearance kicks from them, mostly because they were under massive pressure in their red zone a number of times. When the Cheetahs did decide to kick long, it was proper. Then of course, there was the 21 points of Niel Marais with the boot. The attacking approach by both sides was laudable. The Cheetahs’ interplay between their backs and forwards was especially seamless. They held onto the ball while their support runners cut into space. They offloaded in the tackle and they played at a sky-high intensity. There was no head-down running and they didn’t take contact just for the sake of it. Instead, they focused on keeping the ball alive at all costs. Their loosies, with Uzair Cassiem leading the way, deserve praise for the way they provided great ball for their backs, and the same can be said about the Bulls.