Hanro to breathe new life into Bulls?
PRETORIA: THE winds of change are finally blowing through Loftus, but the question remains: will they have any effect on their poor Super Rugby campaign?
While the answer to that question will be revealed in tomorrow’s clash against the Highlanders at Loftus, Bulls coach Nollis Marais has taken the only decision he has at his disposal to arrest the downward spiral.
Gone is former Springbok captain Adriaan Strauss and so too other under-performing players and in comes former Junior Springbok captain Hanro Liebenberg to lead the Bulls into a new era.
Strauss has a foot injury and will miss the game against the Highlanders and probably the matches against the Lions and Hurricanes.
The 21-year-old Liebenberg will become the youngest Bulls captain in Super Rugby history, and while his appointment will be with an eye on the future, Liebenberg wants the turnaround at Loftus to begin as early as tomorrow afternoon.
“For us this week the main focus has been to put up a better performance. We let ourselves down in many aspects. So this week is about going out and giving a better performance and getting back the respect for ourselves and fans,” said Liebenberg.
Marais’ move to hand the leadership reins to Liebenberg may be considered premature by many, but in Liebenberg’s own words “the players must individually, and as a team, take responsibility for what has happened”, that could be the breath of fresh air needed to turn things around.
“For me personally it is not that much of a burden, especially with the quality guys we have in the team. For me it will be to go out there and get the best out of them,” Liebenberg said.
The pressure of turning things around for the Bulls won’t solely lie on the young shoulders of Liebenberg and Marais has made wholesale changes to the team in a last ditch effort to save his job. JOHANNESBURG: With 10 points in the bag the Lions’ trip to Australia is already a successful one. But Johan Ackermann and Co will want to make it a fullhouse when they come up against the Brumbies in their third and final tour match today.
Coach Ackermann and captain Warren Whiteley will tell the players to lift their game for one last time on this trip, to push hard for the 80 minutes and go for the knockout.
If they manage to do the business – that is win all three games with bonus points bagged, it would be the first time a South African side has travelled abroad for three matches and bagged all the available points on offer.
It would also set the Lions up perfectly for their final push to finish top of the overall log at the end of the round-robin phase to give themselves their best chance of going all the way in the competition.
After today’s match, the Lions have a run-in that can only be described as very favourable. They host the out-of-sorts Bulls next week, then the Kings (home), before they freshen up during the June international break, and return for dates with the Sunwolves (home) and Sharks (away).
A win with a five-point haul today would give the Lions 10 wins and a total of 47 log points; a win shy and five points less than they finished on last season after their 15 matches (11 wins from 15 with 52 points).
While the Brumbies are without doubt Australia’s best side and have a strong history in the competition, it is a game that the Lions should win, provided they stay focused and don’t get drawn into an arm-wrestle.
Everything that we have seen from the teams so far this season points to a Lions victory; the visitors have scored many more tries than their opponents, they’ve asked more questions with ball in hand, they’ve hung onto the ball for longer periods and, all-round, Ackermann’s men have played better rugby. The Brumbies have managed just three wins from their nine matches; nothing to boast about.
But Stephen Larkham’s men have a knack for “smothering” opposition teams, as Ackermann called it this week, and not allowing them to play their normal game. They’re strong defensively so the Lions will have to be patient with ball in hand and look to wear the Brumbies down by being clinical and giving them nothing to play with.
The last match of a threeweek tour is always the toughest. The players often have one foot on the plane home and with the Lions having already bagged two wins there’s a real danger of them losing focus and concentration. The management team though will be hoping this Lions team don’t fall into that trap, not after doing all the hard work leading up to this match.
If they hadn’t done so already, there’s an opportunity today to really make a big statement; and that is to say the Lions of 2017 are able to win anywhere and at any time, under any circumstances.
Meanwhile, the Cheetahs kick off their two-match tour of New Zealand with a match against the Blues in Auckland this morning (9.35am kickoff). Franco Smith’s men will be looking to bounce back after conceding three converted tries in the final four minutes to lose to the Highlanders in a high-scoring game in Bloemfontein last week.
The Cheetahs have won just twice in 10 matches, while the Blues have five wins and are coming off a 40-33 win against the Waratahs.