Pote: Show your talent
BULLS COACH: IT’S A BIG GAME FOR US, AND BEING AT HOME WE HAVE TO WIN
Depleted Lions will still be a tough nut to crack at Loftus.
Assuming that they are able to actually hang on to the ball this time, the Blue Bulls will want to show their long-suffering supporters that they still have the talent to play exciting and winning rugby when they host their neighbours, the high-flying Golden Lions, in a Currie Cup clash at Loftus Versfeld today.
The Lions have become the yardstick in South African rugby these days, but with so many players away with the Springboks or in Japan, whether they will be the team to beat in the Currie Cup remains to be seen. But they made an impressive enough start in dispatching Griquas in their opening game last weekend.
Blue Bulls coach Pote Human is content, as well, that his team have a plan in place to be strong contenders, even though he has spent the last week imploring them to cut out the soft mistakes and finish the opportunities they have created with some marvellous attacking play.
“It was just the errors that cost us against the Sharks, but we created numerous chances. Our handling is something we’ve worked hard on this week, and the first thing the guys said was that they had to train better, they had to keep the ball in practice.
“We’ve realised we have played some good rugby, we just need to limit our mistakes and we must make use of our opportunities. It’s a big game, and being at home we have to win,” Human said.
While the players should now be handling the ball with as much care as a Ming vase, they also need to bring physicality and intensity to their effort if they are to beat the Lions and keep their Currie Cup destiny in their own hands.
“I think the Lions will throw the ball around, but if that doesn’t work then they can always turn to their mauls and scrums. They came up against a very good scrum last week in Griquas, so they will be ready for us.
“The Lions will also come with good tempo – they caught us a bit in the first 20 minutes in Super Rugby and then they made the game quick again in the second half,” Human said.
Kick-off: 4.05pm.
Agood friend of mine and I have our own terms for flaky rugby players who flatter to deceive. We call them “fancy” players … and you’d be surprised how many we’ve identified the past few years.
Yet as the Springbok midfield crumbled against a spirited, physical Pumas outfit last weekend, we realise something disturbing. South African rugby currently has a whole collection of “fancy” centres – nationwide!
National depth at centre is rather strange at the moment and there isn’t a shortage of candidates. And it’s not as if they don’t have their moments.
But as was illustrated vividly in Mendoza, they lack solidity. There’s no consistency and there seems to be a premium on “fancy” skills such as distribution and game-breaking ability.
That’s what made Lukhanyo Am’s performance so frustrating to watch. He possesses all the attributes for an international midfielder, especially in terms of unfashionable traits such as defence and ball-poaching at the breakdowns.
However, in Mendoza he and partner Andre Esterhuizen were badly exposed, with Nick Mallett commenting afterwards that the duo had been extremely “naïve” on defence.
The question then is, why are our midfielders so “fancy”? It’s actually not something that lies with them, it’s their coaching.
There’s no better example for me of this troubling phenomenon than Lions stalwart Harold Vorster. When he made his Currie Cup debut in 2014, he was a throwback to the past.
Coach Johan Ackermann had even admitted that while he was excited by Vorster’s attacking potential, the main reason for his inclusion was that he was such an unrelenting defender. He had wanted Vorster to bring balance to an overly attack-minded backline.
Four years later, Vorster hasn’t lost his ability to defend stoutly but it’s become less of a priority as South African rugby has become seduced by the lure of attacking instead of pragmatic rugby.
There is literally no midfield candidate that one can label as a player picked for his defensive prowess.
The Springboks don’t have a defensive organiser such as Jaque Fourie anymore or a tackling pest in Pieter Muller.
I’m not saying we must breed centres than can only tackle but local rugby needs to stop putting a premium on attacking skills.
International rugby is attritional. It’s not, in a word, “fancy”.