Penalty count frustrates Bulls’ Human

Ken Borland

Blue Bulls coach Pote Human was delighted to come away from Kimberley with five points, but the number of penalties his side conceded were a cause of concern despite his team’s 45-40 win over Griquas in their Currie Cup match at the weekend.

The Blue Bulls raced into a 28-7 lead after 26 minutes, but they were 35-28 down just 23 minutes later, before regrouping and holding off the plucky home side thanks to the tenacity of their defence.

“Obviously I’m glad for the five points because it is never easy to get away from Kimberley with a bonus-point win, but I cannot defend the number of penalties we conceded and that’s been a big concern for the last two weeks. After 30 minutes there was only one team on the field, but then we started to give away penalties and that put us on the back foot.

“But we showed real character in the last quarter of the match. The fight we showed, our set-pieces and the excellent defence at times were the positives to come out of the match,” Human said.

The victory keeps the Blue Bulls within the top four in the table, but they will still need to win their last two games, against Western Province and the Pumas, before they can consider themselves safely in port in terms of the semifinals.

And there is uncertainty going forward over the availability of Springboks Trevor Nyakane and Ivan van Zyl.

Prop Nyakane was stretchered off after suffering a head clash with Ruan Steenkamp, while scrumhalf Van Zyl could well get a recall to the Springbok squad for the home leg of the Rugby Championship.

“Ivan made a difference for us today off the bench, but we don’t know what Rassie Erasmus is going to do, whether he’s going to get a Springbok call-up or not. Andre Warner has been part of our structures throughout, so it makes it difficult, but it’s a nice problem to have.

“I don’t like rolling subs so it was not part of my plan, but then Dayan van der Westhuizen had to come on early for Trevor, and he came through really well, considering that he’s not the fittest guy at the moment. Ruan Steenkamp was also unbelievable, he was great today, and Jano Venter also did very well and I’m very glad for him after everyone wrote him off,” Human said.