Injuries threaten Bulls’ chances
THE Bulls have been hit by a spate of injuries which threaten to derail their bid for a Super Rugby playoff place ahead of their trip to face the Jaguares in Argentina on Saturday.
THE Bulls have been hit by a spate of injuries which threaten to derail their bid for a Super Rugby playoff place ahead of their trip to face the Jaguares in Argentina on Saturday.
Fullback Warrick Gelant has joined Handré Pollard on the longterm casualty list after tearing ligaments in his knee, while lock Grant Hattingh is likely to undergo surgery on his knee.
During the international window the Bulls lost Jan Serfontein (hand), RG Snyman (ankle) and Trevor Nyakane (ankle) to injury. The latter two were in the SA A and Springbok teams that played the England Saxons and Ireland.
Coach Nollis Marais also confirmed the Bulls would rest captain Adriaan Strauss, who will not travel with the team to South America for Saturday’s match. Flanker Lappies Labuschagne will captain the Bulls in Strauss’s absence.
Despite the losses in personnel, Marais wanted his charges to show more positivity than they did when they were destroyed 56-20 by the Lions in May.
“You never foresee getting so many injuries during the season, so it’s going to be a big challenge,” he said. “But, you know, this opens up a chance for some of the guys who played for us in the Currie Cup.
“The worst thing we can do now is look at the Lions game and think we were so bad. The Lions would have beaten any team on that day. They were very good and deserve credit.
“That said, there are also certain things that we need to adapt to and make better, like our intensity. We can’t just maul it up and think we are going to win a match with lineout drives the whole time because when they stop your maul you’ll have nothing going for you. We decided that there’s a certain way we want to play and the way we played against the Lions was definitely not it.
“We were too conservative in that game. We kept the ball in the front and didn’t take our opportunities out wide. I want us to play more with the ball in certain areas. We need different ways to breach the gain line.”
Marais said Deon Stegmann, Jacques Potgieter and Bjorn Basson would also not board the flight to Argentina, but Roelof Smit, Renaldo Bothma and Jamba Ulengo were ready replacements.
Despite having the same number of wins, the Bulls trail the Stormers by four points on the Super Rugby Africa Conference 1 table. Defeat on Saturday would bury their campaign for a playoff position.
Marais wants his team to capitalise on the Jaguares’ chronic lack of discipline by turning penalties into points and hitting them hard at the breakdown. “They’ve had discipline issues, but I only hope referee Craig Joubert will see them,” he said.
“At the weekend against France their national team also had some issues. Playing there is still going to be difficult regardless.
“But I’m more worried about what we need to do than them. Hopefully we can capitalise on their illdiscipline. I think it’s going to be one of those matches that are fought on the breakdown and that is why I included Roelof Smit when Stegmann got injured,” Marais said.
“Smit and Lappies (Labuschagne) will play to the ground, which will be crucial for us. We cannot go into our shell when we have the ball either, we have to play with the ball.”