Ken Borland

It was perhaps even tougher than coach Jake White expected but the Bulls managed to end their tour on a winning note as they beat Benetton 44-22 in their United Rugby Championship match in Treviso on Friday night, but their performance was still not good enough to muzzle their critics.

The Bulls were a puzzle in the first half, showing occasional glimpses of promise but being unable to sustain pressure for long due to unforced errors. Defensively they also failed to contain a physical Benetton team that also attacked with purpose and width.

Were it not for the Bulls managing to stifle Benetton at the breakdown, where Marcell Coetzee led the way in winning numerous turnovers, helped by Bismarck du Plessis and Marco van Staden, the home side would have been much further ahead than 9-3 at halftime.

The Bulls started brightly in the second half, strong driving play by the forwards earning flyhalf Chris Smith a penalty and then a superb carry by flank Van Staden had defenders hanging off him, scrumhalf Embrose Papier was quick to the ball, sniped and broke through and lock Ruan Nortje was up in support as ever for the try.

A 13-12 lead became 20-12 when eighthman Elrigh Louw plunged over for a try from close range, but Benetton were back in front 22-20 by the hour mark as scrumhalf Dewaldt Duvenhage orchestrated a clinical dissection of the Bulls defence for flank Manuel Zuliani to score.

It took a moment of good fortune to shift the momentum as the Bulls escaped sustained pressure inside their 22 when the ball mysteriously popped out on their side. They swept upfield and Smith kicked a penalty to put them back in front 23-22.

Morne Steyn then came on to ensure the Bulls dominated territory in the final quarter, kicking the ball into the corners and the maul was able to set a solid platform. The veteran flyhalf also slotted his conversions from tight angles.

In the last 10 minutes, the Bulls scored three ties as replacement hooker Jan-Hendrik Wessels tidied up well at a five-metre lineout to score, just managing to stay in touch, man of the match Coetzee scored a well-deserved try and Stravino Jacobs rounded off a breakaway in the final minute.

Scorers

Benetton Treviso – Try: Manuel Zuliani. Conversion: Tomas Albornoz. Penalties: Albornoz (5).

Bulls – Tries: Ruan Nortje, Elrigh Louw, Jan-Hendrick Wessels, Marcell Coetzee, Stravino Jacobs. Conversions: Chris Smith (2), Morne Steyn (3). Penalties: Smith (3).

Have opposing teams in the United Rugby Championship finally found ways of nullifying the physical threat posed by the Bulls, or are last season’s losing finalists just nowhere near their best at the moment?

This was the question dominating discussion among Bulls watchers as they slipped to successive defeats away to the Glasgow Warriors and Munster, sliding down to sixth place on the log before Friday’s night tricky fixture against Benetton in Treviso.

The answer, as it often is, is probably a bit of both.

Coach Jake White admitted this week that “for whatever reason, we have not played as well as we can. Sometimes it feels like we are stuck in third gear and we struggle to get into fifth.”

But he also made the salient point that it is still early days in the URC and the Bulls’ focus is on playing their best rugby in the last three weeks – the quarterfinals, semi-finals and final in May next year.

It is also worth noting his reminder that the Bulls were in a far worse position this time last season, winning just one of their first five matches. They were all away from home though, in an extremely tough draw, and the Bulls made it five losses from six games when they were then beaten by the Stormers at home. But in the end they still managed to make the final and, in fact, were only one win away from finishing second on the log.

But the Bulls have been exposed a bit in the physicality stakes, with both Glasgow and Munster dominating the collisions, as well as other aspects of play. It has long been accepted in rugby that games are won by the forwards and the backs decide by how much.

Although White bristles at suggestions that his team has been outmuscled, he has also been going on for the last two years at least about how young his squad is, which is a key factor.

Both the Glasgow and Munster packs were full of 30-year-olds who have been in the rugby trenches for a decade. They are mature men, experienced and streetwise.

There is a lovely word in Afrikaans that describes these yeoman forwards that every team needs to do the hard graft, the ugly work – these are the haardebaarde, literally translated as the ‘tough beards’.

White said he wanted more ‘menere’ in his team, saying the Bulls are currently “overloaded with juniors”.

As brilliant as they have been, Steenekamp, Wessels, Mornay Smith, Matanzima, Grobbelaar, Louw, Swanepoel, Nortje, Uys and Steenkamp are all no older than 25, and it should not be a surprise when wiser and more mature forwards get the better of them.

White has said that the age profile of the Bulls, but also the Lions and to some extent the Stormers, is wrong – they do not have enough of those middle-aged players between the ages of 27 and 30, when they are at their peak.

The blame for that can be laid on the economic situation of the country which has allowed overseas clubs to cause bad damage to our teams by taking advantage of the weakness of the Rand and cherry-picking the best talent.

The Sharks have managed to counter that talent-drain through equity partners and strong leadership at board level, while the Bulls are committed to a long-term plan of rebuilding their strength and are also benefiting from excellent investors and the great work of their CEO Edgar Rathbone and union president Willem Strauss.

One can only congratulate John Dobson and the Stormers for managing to get the absolute best out of their talent given the fact that the union was basically bankrupt, and it is going to be thrilling to watch the current Lions side grow and develop, given how well those youngsters are playing this season.

But imagine how much more depth all our sides would have if we could bring that 27-30 age cohort back to South Africa?

The Bulls will be eager to stop their slide down the United Rugby Championship table before the end of October when the competition takes a break, but disappointing results are not the main reason coach Jake White has changed half his starting line-up for their match against Benetton in Treviso on Friday night.

Having been knocked over and physically dominated by the Glasgow Warriors and Munster on successive weekends, the Bulls are now down to sixth on the log. Benetton will definitely be tricky to beat on their home turf, and the high-flying Sharks then come to Loftus Versfeld on October 30.

“It’s not just results that decide selection, I would have changed the team anyway this week,” White said on Thursday. “Every coach has an idea of a certain team he wants to play against certain opposition.

“But then the whole thing changes with injury and I didn’t think I would not have Johan Goosen or Cornal Hendricks. But it’s a long season and the European competition hasn’t even kicked off yet.

“Benetton rested a lot of their main players last week, we know they have targeted this game and everyone understands how tough it will be. It shouldn’t be an ambush here anymore.

“We have not gone from a good team to a poor one overnight, and this is a massive game for us because an away win is like gold. No-one must think we’re going through the motions,” White said.

The ever-improving Benetton side is certainly not going to stand back for anyone on their home ground anymore, and the Bulls can expect a feisty welcome up front, led by loose forward Lorenzo Cannone and his brother, lock Niccolò. Benetton still talk about their famous victory over the Bulls in the Rainbow Cup final last year, when White’s team, rampant at home, were shocked by the intensity of their hosts.

“I hope we are not surprised again. There will be unbelievable passion in the crowd and we are coming from rain and cold every day in Scotland and Ireland to warm weather and sunshine,” White said.

“Benetton still talk a lot about beating us in that final, and that was an opportunity for us to learn some lessons. I hope we are wise enough that we don’t get caught again.

“They are a good team, well-coached, while, for whatever reason, we have not played as well as we can. Sometimes it feels like we are stuck in third gear and we struggle to get into fifth.

“But our saving grace is that it is a long season and we only need to play our best rugby at the back end. But the challenge is for us to get better every week,” White said.

Bulls: Kurt-lee Arendse, David Kriel, Stedman Gans, Harold Vorster, Wandisile Simelane, Chris Smith, Embrose Papier, Elrigh Louw, Marco van Staden, Marcell Coetzee (CAPT), Ruan Nortje, Janko Swanepoel, Francois Klopper, Bismarck du Plessis, Gerhard Steenekamp. Bench – Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Simphiwe Matanzima, Mornay Smith, Walt Steenkamp, WJ Steenkamp, Zak Burger, Morne Steyn, Stravino Jacobs.

Kickoff: 6.30pm.

Neil Powell was the public-facing spokesman for the Sharks for the first time on Thursday as he announced a starting line-up densely populated with Springboks for their United Rugby Championship clash with Ulster in Durban on Saturday.

Powell is the new director of rugby at Kings Park and took over team announcement duties from head coach Sean Everitt for the first time on Thursday. The former Springbok Sevens coach said that would now be the norm, and while he has the final say in selection, Everitt and the other coaches are extensively consulted.

And so the Sharks will run out on Saturday with eight Springboks, including the entire front row, two other forwards and three backs, to take on the powerful Ulster outfit. It is a mirror image of last weekend’s game against Glasgow Warriors, when there were five Springboks on the bench and they produced a spectacular finish to turn a one-point lead after 50 minutes into a 40-12 win.

“I talk a lot with Sean about selection, especially when it came to how to introduce the Springboks. They were on the bench last weekend, but now we’re bringing them into the starting line-up,” Powell said.

“It’s always great to have them and the URC is always a squad effort. We are fortunate to have the Boks for the last two weeks because they go back to the national set-up after this game.

“They’ll come back just before our game against Harlequins in the European Cup [December 10], so we had to make sure they integrated well now, because that competition will be a massive challenge.

“And it’s also given us the opportunity to rest some of the guys who have played the last four/five matches in a row. We have to make sure we manage the whole squad well,” Powell said.

While Powell said his focus is on upskilling and improving aspects of the URC team’s play, he is also concentrating on making the academy the sort of place to which rugby legends would be happy to send their son.

“My job is about building the brand and the team, and that can only happen if we have success on the field, so that’s my focus,” Powell said.

“But I’ll also look after the academy and make sure we get juniors coming through from the U20 competition to the Currie Cup and through to the URC.

“We don’t want to have to buy players from outside our system, so we need to change things up there. I’ll also be looking at the coaching structure at senior level.

“But it’s not a one-man show, it’s going to be a combined effort,” Powell said.

Sharks team: Aphelele Fassi, Werner Kok, Marnus Potgieter, Ben Tapuai, Makazole Mapimpi, Boeta Chamberlain, Jaden Hendrikse, Phepsi Buthelezi, Vincent Tshituka, Siya Kolisi, Hyron Andrews, Eben Etzebeth, Thomas du Toit, Bongi Mbonambi, Ox Nche. Bench – Kerron van Vuuren, Ntuthuko Mchunu, Carlu Sadie, Reniel Hugo, James Venter, Sikhumbuzo Notshe, Cameron Wright, Anthony Volmink.