Morne is still Bok material

Bulls Director of Rugby Jake White lauded the performance of veteran flyhalf Morne Steyn (below) in Saturday’s close 20-16 win over the Stormers at Cape Town Stadium.

As the only two unbeaten teams in the Rainbow Cup SA, the Bulls and the Sharks are heading for a top-of-the-table showdown this weekend at Loftus with Steyn likely to be a vital cog.

“Morne has been a stalwart of this team and he has been in the alignment camps with the national team,” said White, indicating Steyn might be in line for a second shot at the British and Irish Lions.

White said Steyn is tactically astute and knew how they wanted to play.

He said while it was a “different way”, it had been a strategic ploy to suffocate the Stormers attack.

”To be fair we conceded 19 penalties to eight, so to get a result when you concede so many penalties and a yellow card is pleasing,” he said.

“But it’s obviously something we have to look at during the week,” he added.

White said it wasn’t just the scrum penalties, but other situations where they had to be a bit more clever.

With a trip up north looming, Stormers coach John Dobson said it had been really disappointing losing two close matches in a row.

“One could have argued we should have won both and it has taken the toll on the guys. It’s more about getting them mentally up for it, excited, and keeping the team together,” he said.

Stormers captain Steven Kitshoff said the controversial captain’s challenge definitely has an influence on the momentum of the game.

“There were yellow card incidents the previous week because of the call and against the Bulls there was the card to Nizaam Carr, so it does take away from the flow of the game,” he said.