Cape Town - If the Bulls can just avoid shooting themselves in the foot for a change, they would have a much better chance of finally beating the Stormers.
That was the gist of the message from forwards coach Russell Winter ahead of Saturday’s United Rugby Championship (URC) derby at Loftus Versfeld (5.05pm kick-off).
As things stand, the Bulls are rank underdogs. They have lost their last four games against the Cape side
(one home, three away), have won just twice in seven matches across the URC and Champions Cup, and have been without their head coach Jake White for over a month.
The Pretoria side will also miss star Springbok attackers Kurt-Lee Arendse and Canan Moodie, who are part of the national group that are resting due to the Rugby World Cup later this year.
Sure, the Stormers also won’t have a number of big games for the same reason – such as captain Steven Kitshoff, Frans Malherbe, Marvin Orie and Damian Willemse – but the defending champions have built up a considerable amount of depth while still winning.
They are second on the URC log with 50 points from 13 games, with the Bulls fourth on 40 from 13.
But there’s nothing like a North/South Derby to fuel the fire, and the Bulls will hope to reignite their campaign on Saturday, especially after playing six out of their last seven games away from home.
“The travel was good. Unfortunately the results didn’t go our way, but we enjoyed the travel. If we want the result (against the Stormers), there are a lot of things we need to neutralise from our point of view. They have an outstanding set-piece. They have a really good maul – their maul has been really functioning well against all the teams they’ve played against,” Winter said.
“And of course their scrum – they put the Sharks under a hell of a lot of pressure in the scrums, and you know what that can result in. You don’t want to give away silly penalties, and you want to make sure you try to keep them in an area of the field where you can pressure them the most.
“Those are the two aspects we really need to watch out for. And at the same time, defensively, they have been outstanding. They are coming off the line so hard and putting teams under pressure, forcing them to make a lot of mistakes.
“We need to make sure we hold onto the ball in the right areas of the field. Last but not least, their attack has been outstanding as well! It sounds like they are the perfect side!
“But it must be said that they are playing really good rugby, and we appreciate that fact and are looking forward to that challenge. If we can string together an 80-minute performance that we know we are capable of doing, it can be a really good game.”
The Bulls have had some good periods of play over the last few months, but apart from the wins over the Dragons (away) and Exeter (home), they have been on the wrong side of the result due to a number of critical errors.
Their defence and handling have let them down at times, but Winter believes discipline will be the key to success against the Stormers.
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The front row of Gerhard Steenekamp, Johan Grobbelaar and Mornay Smith must be on the right side of referee Marius van der Westhuizen’s whistle at scrum-time, while flank Marco van Staden must time his breakdown contests to perfection.
“That’s what’s frustrating us the most: it’s just the consistency of the way we play. There have been patches where we have been outstanding, and then for some or other reason, there are such soft moments in our game. We are trying to iron those out, and want to make sure it doesn’t happen on Saturday – those silly penalties,” the former Lions No 8 said.
“We just want to try to play a game where there is none of those silly mistakes. Our discipline really needs to improve. It’s cost us, and in the games we’ve lost, it’s been our Achilles.
“We’ve got to make sure we don’t give away those soft moments, those soft penalties, where we are just allowing the pressure to be back on us. It’s something that we’ve worked hard on over the last week-and-ahalf.
“It’s really important that we limit the mistakes, not only in conceding penalties, but stupid little knock-ons, handling errors, set-piece errors … The winner of this game is going to come down to the side that makes the least errors – whether it be at the set-piece or general play.”