Cape Town - The Bulls forwards will rightly get the plaudits for a dominant display, but Johan Goosen reminded everybody about his class as well in Friday night’s 29-14 United Rugby Championship win over the Dragons in Newport.
The pack came under fire for a meek performance in the 47-20 loss to the Sharks in Durban in New Year’s Eve, where their scrum felt the heat from the all-Springbok front row of Ox Nche, Bongi Mbonambi and Thomas du Toit.
That was the third consecutive defeat for the Pretoria side, and the long trip to Wales ramped up the pressure on Jake White’s team.
But they responded in style as they rolled up their sleeves to climb in physically, winning several penalties and driving the Dragons back in the mauls, with the knockout blow being landed by Bismarck du Plessis’ bonus-point touchdown with 15 minutes left.
It was no surprise that scrum consultant Werner Kruger was smiling yesterday when speaking about the set-pieces.
“We’ve been building now from the start of the season, and the boys are progressing well. The local derbies have got a different factor to it – I thought we scrummed well in Cape Town, and then definitely let ourselves down in Durban. I feel we are a better scrum unit than what we put on display there,” the former Bok tighthead prop said.
“This week, with the travel, there wasn’t a lot of time to train. So, it was more of a mental switch, and taking us back to what makes us good. We pretty much spoke about that, and we did what was necessary for us in training to turn it around – so I’m proud of the boys.
“Away from home, you are never going to get a good result if you are not physical and very direct. I think we did that very well – in our carries we were very direct and made some good yards.
Kurt-Lee Arendse 🆚 Rio Dyer
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“In our defence as well we managed to not give them any real go-forward or any space to move, so that’s really positive and something we need to build and improve on to compete at the back-end of the competition.”
But it was Goosen who sparked the Bulls into life with a devastating break from his 22-metre line in the fourth minute, before feeding a flying Kurt-Lee Arendse, who shrugged off two tackles to score.
The Bulls flyhalf was a late replacement for an ill Chris Smith – with White also staying behind in the hotel – and having been relegated to the bench during the week, he proved that he can still turn on the magic with a number of sniping runs, while also bringing his forwards into play and getting his backline going.
Goosen made the unforgivable mistake of missing touch from penalties on four occasions – one of which eventually led to a Dragons try – but his goal-kicking was spot on.
“It’s always going to be tough for any player to come back from a long-term injury, and we are slowly starting to see him back to his best. He’s a quality player, and it’s great to have a man of his experience to step back into the flyhalf role and take charge of everything for us,” Kruger said about Goosen.
“It was obviously a bit of a disruption – you plan the whole week with Chris, and Jake’s involved. So, it was a major disruption, but all credit to the team and everyone for stepping up, filling little roles and making it work on game-day – especially Johan stepping in at flyhalf.
“In the stadium, the wind was almost hidden – you couldn’t really feel it on the pitch, just behind the stand. And all of a sudden, as soon as you kick it and the ball goes up into the air, the wind catches it.
“That’s probably a bit of a learning school for us as the Bulls, being the first time at Rodney Parade… Just to manage that wind a little better, and kick a bit closer, as there is a sudden gust of wind that holds the ball up.
“When you kick straight down the field, from poles to poles, the wind wasn’t that big a factor. So, we felt it was almost hiding behind the stand.”
Kruger added that White and Smith were feeling better yesterday and would travel with the team to South Africa for next Saturday’s Champions Cup game against the Exeter Chiefs at Loftus Versfeld (7.30pm kick-off).
Points-Scorers
Dragons 14 – Tries: Bradley Roberts, Max Clark. Conversions: Sam Davies (2).
Bulls 29 – Tries: Kurt-Lee Arendse, Penalty Try, Harold Vorster, Bismarck du Plessis. Conversions: Johan Goosen (2). Penalty: Goosen (1).