NEAR PERFECT GAME
Blue Bulls crush Stormers
Bulls coach Pote Human has described his side’s highly impressive 40-3 Super Rugby win over the Stormers at the weekend as a ‘near-perfect’ performance.
The Bulls played attacking and, at times, devastating rugby as they scored four tries through Johnny Kotze‚ Jesse Kriel and a brace by debutant Rosko Specman.
Man-of-the-match Handrè Pollard dazzled as he converted all his seven kicks that included four conversions and three penalties. The Stormers’ penalty was scored by S P Marais.
The Bulls’ defence was able to stop the Stormers from scoring a try, and they impressed with their line-outs, where they managed to take the ball away from the visitors while their scrummaging was also on point.
“Overall it was a near-perfect performance from the boys, but I agree that we gave away soft penalties and sometimes in defence we were too narrow.
“Those are the few things that we need to work on going forward‚” said a satisfied Human after his first match in charge at this level.
“This is a good confidencebooster for the guys and we are looking forward to the season.
“I know that we have the squad to do well this year but we must just stay on the ground and be humble. There is no doubt that we will surprise a lot of teams this season.
“In our set-pieces‚ especially in the line-outs‚ we were very impressive because we managed to take the ball away from them, and not to concede a try against the Stormers is a great achievement.”
Captain Lood de Jager agreed with Human that they were spot-on with their set-pieces on the day.
“It was a good effort by the pack. Everybody went out to the field to execute the plans.
“We spent a lot of time off the field analysing these things, and I want to thank all the forwards for their sterling work in the line-outs.
“There was calmness on the field‚ especially in the second half, because we managed to take a good lead to the break.
“We didn’t want to give away soft tries or let them back in the game or go into defensive mode.
“That little bit of experience helped. We stayed calm and we knew that they had to chase the game‚” said De Jager.
Though Pollard was named the man-of-the-match for his sterling work with the boot‚ Specman’s two early tries set the tone for this victory and Human said the South African Sevens star has the X-factor.
“It is unbelievable to have a player like Rosko in our team‚” he said.
Specman said he did not expect to score two tries in his Super Rugby debut.
“We did good work up front and I knew that if their defence retreats there will open spaces‚” said Specman.