Bad decisions costing Bulls

Ken Borland

Bulls backline coach David Manuel (above) has admitted the team are now in the unfortunate position of having to chase results because the processes that looked in place during the week have not come to fruition on the field.

Having lost all four of their away games so far this season, it is essential that the Bulls get the win against the bottom-of-group Sunwolves in Tokyo on Saturday, leading into a string of home games that have to be won if they are to get anything out of this campaign.

“We’re not getting the results but we believe what we have been working on will come through and manifest itself against the Sunwolves this weekend.

“As individuals we have to be honest with ourselves. We see the players’ capacity and talent every day in training, which obviously leads to the expectation that we’ll see it over the weekend, but there just hasn’t been a manifestation of it on the field,” Manuel said yesterday.

The abs on the players might look impressive, but many critics have pointed to a lack of fitness, a level of conditioning specifically tailored to playing a high-tempo, ball-in-hand game, as a major stumbling block for the Bulls. But Manuel said there was nothing wrong with the players’ conditioning.

“Of course we must play for the full 80 minutes and we need more patience, we mustn’t get over-excited or anxious with the ball, and there’s been a huge emphasis on our conversion rate. But it’s just a lack of concentration, the guys need to be mature enough to make the right decisions in different scenarios.

“Instead we’ve been making mistakes in any given situation due to bad decisions. But it’s definitely not fitness, we’ve worked hard on our conditioning,” Manuel said.