Cape Town — It has been a long and difficult season for Ruan Nortjé in his first campaign as the Bulls captain.
Having taken over the reins from Marcell Coetzee — who is on a sabbatical in Japan — Nortjé had his leadership questioned at times, especially in the midst of a 10-match losing streak across all competitions.
But the Bulls started the journey on the road to redemption by dispatching Griquas 40-3 in the Currie Cup last week — with their URC team — and then the usual Currie Cup outfit outlasted the Sharks 24-20 at Kings Park on Friday night.
So, Saturday’s 78-12 annihilation of Zebre at Ellis Park must have been incredibly satisfying for Nortjé after all the recent trials and tribulations — but he wasn’t showing it too much.
The No 5 lock raised a bit of a smile in the post-match TV interview with SuperSport, even though his team had just scored 11 tries and recorded the biggest victory margin in the URC this season, as well as the most points in a match.
The Bulls were utterly dominant, scoring their first try after just five minutes when Kurt-Lee Arendse showed his class with a little deft grubber for his good mate Canan Moodie to round off, and it was virtually one-way traffic from there for the Pretoria side.
But Nortjé knows that they will have much bigger fish to fry next Saturday, when Leinster will run out at Loftus Versfeld — despite bringing a weakened squad to South Africa — which will determine the Bulls’ fate in the playoff race and Champions Cup qualification.
There were moments where they were a bit too loose, while also kicking possession away inside Zebre’s half when red-hot on attack.
“I am just thankful for the wonderful opportunity today, and just proud of the boys for the effort they brought today,” Nortjé said.
“I think there are still times when we can have better control over our ball, and sometimes the altitude also got us a bit — a bit slow off the ground.
“But lots of positives to take into next week’s clash against Leinster.
“It’s all the way knockouts for us now, and we have to win every game now. Obviously it will be awesome to play against a team like Leinster next week, to test ourselves against the best.”
Loosehead prop Gerhard Steenekamp scored perhaps the best of the 11 touchdowns when he charged over the line following offloads from his front-row colleagues Mornay Smith and Johan Grobbelaar, and the No 1 was chosen as the Man of the Match.
“I think it was a very good performance, and we will definitely look to keep our momentum into next week,” Steenekamp told SuperSport TV.
“We started slowly, but we found our feet after a bit and just have to keep on working like that and never lie down.
“It was important to just keep ticking the scoreboard over, and have no soft moments to let the other team get their tails back up. I think we did well with that and just have to keep on going forward with that.”
🎙️Ruan Nortje reflects on his teams performance against Zebre.🎧#BULvZEB
— Official Blue Bulls (@BlueBullsRugby) April 15, 2023
💙![CDATA[]]>🐃 #TrueToTheBlue #BullsHeard @Vodacom #URC pic.twitter.com/3xgDy8E5Qp
Assistant coach Pine Pienaar added in the post-match press conference that the Bulls won’t get carried away by the final result against Zebre ahead of the Leinster encounter.
“We are happy with the performance, but there were certain areas that we were not happy with when not looking at the score. Still hard work left for us going into next week,” Pienaar said.
“We don’t know where we are going to finish, so for us, it’s important that we nail next week first — it’s going to be a different beast against Leinster.”
Points-Scorers
Bulls 78 – Tries: Canan Moodie (3), Embrose Papier (2), Ruan Vermaak (2), Gerhard Steenekamp, Marco van Staden, Bismarck du Plessis, Chris Smith. Conversions: Johan Goosen (10). Penalty: Goosen (1).
Zebre 12 – Tries: Richard Kriel, Chris Cook. Conversion: Tiff Eden (1).
IOL Sport