Bulls keen to bounce back to winning ways
PRETORIA: The Blue Bulls will have no time to ponder what went wrong in their loss against the Sharks before facing another demanding encounter against Western Province at Newlands tomorrow.
Fortunately for the men in blue, their flaws and woes were rather obvious and the majority of them stemmed from their inability to stick to their plan while still giving away points cheaply to the opposition, according to coach Nollis Marais.
With time against them after Wednesday night’s defeat at Loftus Versfeld, Marais is hopeful two days’ preparation will be enough to get their Currie Cup campaign back on track, but remains wary of a Province side that is struggling after their loss to Griquas in Kimberley on Wednesday.
“We were on the back foot from the beginning and when we were on the attack we lost the ball trying to force fiftyfifty offloads.
“We were just not good enough on the day,” Marais said. “We just have to get back. Province suffered a defeat as well so Saturday they are going to be up for it. “
At the heart of the Bulls problems so early in the campaign has been their frailty in defence, while they have also failed to assert dominance in the scrums and line-outs.
What the men from the capital have excelled in so far has been the speed with which they play with ball in hand and that too seemed to elude them against the Sharks.
For Marais these are minor issues that should be turned around, as long as his side learns to stick to their plan and processes but more importantly, they will need to redefine their attitude on defence.
“We had opportunities but we just didn’t use them. Our reaction speed was not good, unlike in previous games, our set-piece wasn’t good and yet again we gave away tries easily. The Sharks scored easy tries and we had to fight for each and every one so that is something we need to fix.
“Obviously we are changing our defence and the way we want to go but that is going to take time and we need to be much better than we were against the Sharks.
“Defence, exits, we lost ball at kick-off, lost it forward and they scored seven points. We slipped tackles and gave them momentum and we had to catch up all game. We didn’t stick to the process and plan... we need to get the guys back on track,” said Marais.
The Bulls are unlikely to make significant changes to their team to play against Province tomorrow even though the physical toll of playing two games in five days will begin to take effect.
Sensational wing Duncan Matthews is fit and available for selection while Junior Springbok fullback Manie Libbok suffered an ankle injury late in the game against the Sharks.