Cape Town — The Bulls have scored the third-most points in the United Rugby Championship, yet have lost their last four matches in the competition – so, what seems to be the problem with the Pretoria side?
Last week’s 29-25 defeat to the Lions at Loftus probably hurt even more than the previous loss to the Stormers at the same venue.
The Cape side are the defending champions who have subsequently completed the “grand slam” of beating all the South African franchises home and away this season by knocking over the Sharks 29-23 at Cape Town Stadium last weekend.
In sharp contrast, the Lions have been battling on and off the field this season, and despite having beaten Glasgow Warriors the week before, they were real underdogs against the Bulls.
But while Jake White’s team fought back from a 20-3 first-half deficit to lead 25-23 in the final quarter, they still went down in the end.
So, something is not quite right in the Bulls make-up, although the man in charge doesn’t feel it’s an attack issue.
“We’ve scored the third-most points, which in itself is a measurement of whether you have a chance to win the competition. Other teams have scored less points and made the playoffs, but for me as a coaching philosophy, it is to score as many points and tries as you can, because you give yourself a chance to win every single game,” White said after the Lions game.
“I’m comfortable with our attack, and at times, the variation we have is working. Defensively, I know that they (the Lions) didn’t ask too many questions, but when they did try to keep the ball through the phases, I thought we defended well – and we actually defended much better than we have in a while.”
But while the Bulls produced four tries to claim a valuable bonus point from the Lions game, there were still a number of scoring opportunities that were again not taken.
One of the stand-out features of their run to last season’s URC final was their ability to come up with smart plays in the opposition 22, with the five-metre tap-kick move a particular highlight.
But it just feels as if the Bulls haven’t found that same ruthless touch this season with ball-in-hand, having finished with the second-most tries (67) in last season’s league campaign behind Leinster (73).
They have dotted down 56 times after 15 games in the current season, and among the top-eight teams on the standings, only Connacht (50) and the Sharks (52) have scored fewer five-pointers.
The Stormers are level on 56 tries, while unbeaten Irish giants Leinster lead with 74, followed by Ulster (62), Glasgow (61) and 12th-placed Edinburgh (57).
The Bulls haven’t had the services of Bok aces Kurt-Lee Arendse and Canan Moodie for most of their campaign, while the inconsistent form of Johan Goosen – as well as his latest shoulder injury setback – Chris Smith and Morne Steyn at flyhalf hasn’t helped with the rhythm with ball-in-hand either.
White has some time to work on a solution before the next URC clash against Ulster on 25 March in Belfast, while the Currie Cup team will begin their campaign against the Pumas at Loftus on Sunday.
The former Bok coach also feels that captain Ruan Nortje has a heavy load in his first season in charge, following regular skipper Marcell Coetzee’s move to Japan on a sabbatical.
“Finishing… that’s for every team. I think, for a lot of reasons, we probably get over-excited. Captaincy-wise, there is a lot of responsibility for our captain, calling the lineout,” White said.
“It’s like gambling – if you call red, and they go red, then it looks like you’ve got the wrong call. If you go red and they go black, you win.
“So, I just think at this point in time, we are probably calling things and plays that are probably – it’s not anyone’s fault – we are just getting sequences wrong.
“Sequences can be better… In other words, do we maul? Do we play off the top? Those are also things that the captain has to learn, and the group has to learn – it’s not only him. We need the No 10 to help, the hooker to help, and we are probably getting that sort of sequence wrong.
“It’s little things ... There was a lineout that went over the top (against the Lions) and Cyle Brink caught it. He had to play it inside and didn’t, but it doesn’t matter as he nearly made the tryline. So, maybe we could’ve mauled that lineout …
“But the point I am trying to make is that we are not getting the sequences right. And that’s part of the collective understanding about what kind of pressure we want to put the defence under when we are in the 22.”
IOL Sport