Ken Borland

The Bulls’ hamfisted efforts at the breakdown in their opening Super Rugby Unlocked match against Griquas seem to have at least partly been caused by them wondering what the referee had smoked before the game, such was the difference in interpretation between last weekend’s match and their friendly a fortnight ago against the Sharks.

Against the Sharks, with Rasta Rasivhenge on the whistle, the Bulls enjoyed a free-flowing, pacy game because they were allowed quick ball. But against Griquas they were assaulted at the breakdowns by a pack of forwards who went hard at the ball and were able to slow the Bulls down while also effecting 17 turnovers.

Bulls coach Jake White was at pains to point out that he did not have a bone to pick with the referee last weekend, but that the difference in interpretations at the breakdown is a meaty issue for coaches to contend with.

“The side carrying the ball was definitely not rewarded as much, at one stage we had 65% possession and we were still being penalised. We’ve got to try and find out if the referees want us to have the ball or they don’t; if they’re going to continually blow the tackler for not releasing or rolling away and the defenders for offsides, then it will be better to have the ball.

“But Marius van der Westhuizen blew completely differently to the first game we played and I don’t mean to say he was right or wrong. But Griquas came hard at the breakdown and I’m going to have to sit down with Nollis Marais, our breakdown specialist, and see how we can get quick ball. We were probably a bit seduced by the first game against the Sharks, because of how easily we got the ball then it made us think we didn’t need to go in there and fetch it against Griquas,” White said.

Bulls openside flank Marco van Staden is one of the toughest players to shift once he has his hands on the pig’s bladder and he admitted to confusion all round when it came to knowing what to expect from referees.

“The new interpretations are a bit difficult to understand, for the referees also. But the good thing is it seems they are going to reward turnovers if you get both hands under the ball quickly; there’s going to be no more cleaning out from the side and the tacklers have to roll away. But that definitely favours the defending side and suits me,” Van Staden said.

The Springbok who narrowly missed out on the World Cup squad last year actually made more of an impression with his ball-carries: bulging thighs pumping and with a look of tremendous determination on his face, Van Staden used his 1.84m, 106kg frame to great effect, often pulverising the defensive line. His 13 carries were the joint most by any player on the opening weekend, along with EW Viljoen of the Lions and Jasper Wiese of the Cheetahs.

Lady Luck ultimately gave her favour to the home side though at Loftus Versfeld last weekend, but the breakdown probably tops the list of things the Bulls have to improve on if there is not to be a Bull-braai enjoyed by the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein on Friday night.

“I think the Cheetahs wlll definitely come with an expansive game, they will go wide and wide, and it will be a quick game. They want quick ball and we’ve got to slow it down. We have a plan,” Van Staden said.

Lock Jason Jenkins admitted on Monday that the Bulls pack were slow to lay the sort of forward platform that would have made the match against Griquas in Pretoria at the weekend a much easier outing, with the home side eventually having to toil to just edge the spoils 30-23.

The Bulls backline looked dangerous in the first half, but the failure to ‘build an innings’ in the forward exchanges meant Griquas always had enough defenders on their feet to deal with the threat and they also made life very difficult for the hosts in the breakdowns.

“It wasn’t a great performance and we were lucky to get the win, although it’s better to be able to learn from a win than to have to learn from a defeat. Credit to Griquas, who made it really hard for us, it’s not that we underestimated them, we knew they were going to come hard, the Bulls lost to them in the Currie Cup last year and we knew they would be confident.

“Our physicality was up there but coach Jake [Whiite] said at halftime that we had to be more physical and direct, we had to hit their one-off runners back, win that battle first before we could start going wide. We were a bit slow to sort that out first and our attacking breakdown in the first half was very poor because the cleaners were watching the carriers and coming in too late,” Jenkins said on Monday.

While Jenkins has always been well-suited to the mundane hard graft of a number four lock, he wants to develop into a more potent ball-carrier and there were signs of that against Griquas, especially when he burst through the line to set up fellow lock Ruan Nortje for a try.

Jenkins is on loan with the Bulls until November 8, when he has to return to Toyota Verblitz, White’s former club in Japan. The 24-year-old said playing in the Japanese Top League has helped him develop more gas, which he will need to put to good use on Friday night as the Bulls visit a Free State Cheetahs side that loves to play fast-paced, expansive rugby. Jenkins – and the rest of the Bulls tight five – will need to show mobility in order to preserve the defensive line and defuse the Cheetahs attack.

“Rugby in Japan is not as bad as it was five or six years ago, they have really picked up their structures and it’s now a world-class competition. It’s not as physical, but it’s quicker and I’ve had to adapt to moving around the park a lot more.

“The Cheetahs also like to run the ball and expose teams out wide, but we will take them on up front, try and force them to play infield more, force them to play into our hands a bit more. We need to put them under pressure up front, like we should have done early on against Griquas,” Jenkins said.

The Sharks scraped home with a 19-16 win over the Lions in the opening Super Rugby Unlocked match at Kings Park in Durban at the weekend. It was certainly a mixed performance by the pacesetters earlier this year, as relieved coach Sean Everitt admitted afterwards when he said “we were fortunate to survive”.

What Everitt was unhappy with –

The error count of his team: “We made quite a few mistakes, our mistakes let us down, and we were pretty much responsible for our own demise. It was not a polished performance and getting that cohesion takes time. We let it slip on the scoreboard because of our own mistakes and we put ourselves under pressure, at the end of both halves we were really under the pump.”

The set-pieces: “We need to sort our set-pieces out and I wasn’t happy with the lineout. But this pack have only played 40 minutes together at Loftus and it was never going to be a complete performance. Dylan Richardson is a young hooker who is transitioning from loose forward, but he’s a great rugby player, a future Springbok in my mind, so I’m not worried, we will sort it out.”

The number of turnovers when they were on attack: “The attacking breakdown is all about reaction and ball-placement otherwise there’s always the risk of losing the ball on the ground, and I thought Jaco Kriel was outstanding for the Lions. We’ve got to work harder on that dynamic, the referees have said they’re going to reward the jackal and AJ Jacobs certainly did.”

What Everitt was happy with –

The rugby they played in the first quarter: “I asked for a fast start, especially after the slow start to the Bulls game two weeks ago, and I was happy with that, we could have scored a couple more tries. We played some amazing rugby in the first 20 minutes, our contestable kicks – we had some really good ones, similar to in Super Rugby – and defence were outstanding.”

The defence: “The defence shows this team works for each other and it was a team effort to get the result despite not playing as well as we would have liked. We were fortunate to survive, but we finished strongly. We had some massive turnovers, this team lives for those and they work really hard on that. The Lions came with a power game and we did really well to keep them out, we stopped their momentum and did very well to not give them the gain-line.

A Bulls team comprising 11 Springboks was pushed all the way by a Griquas side without a single international in their Super Rugby Unlocked game at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria at the weekend, with the home team eventually coming back from deficits of 10-0 in the first half and 18-10 early in the second to win 30-23.

As Griquas coach Scott Mathie pointed out afterwards, even when you take the Springboks out of the equation, the Bulls have about R30 million rand more to spend on players than the minnows from Kimberley, and yet it was the visitors who handed out many lessons on Saturday night.

Here are the main things new coach Jake White would have learnt about the Bulls from the tough encounter:

There is enough character and skill in the team when they are under pressure

Having played half-an-hour of poor rugby, wasting several chances, the Bulls did not panic and managed to go into halftime all-square at 10-10. Similarly, after conceding eight points early in the second half, they stuck to the revised game-plan in the second half and closed out a vital win.

“There was good character shown by the team, to be 10-0 down after 35 minutes and to be able to go into the changeroom at 10-10 was a good character test. Credit to Griquas for stopping our momentum, the way they defended and chased everything showed a lot of fight and spirit. I would have preferred we played like we did against the Sharks and got five points, but you see different things under pressure.

“I don’t really know a lot of the players very well and I got time to see the players and how they react under pressure tonight. Fortunately we were able to win the little battles, those championship moments, and we scored 30 points despite not playing well. Everybody wants to see the perfect game and maybe some people expected that tonight, but it’s not always going to happen,” White said.

The Bulls, for all their attacking potential, have to ‘build an innings’, they need to be more direct first before trying to exploit space out wide

The Bulls backline again looked threatening with ball in hand and some ambitious rugby was played in the first half. But they were guilty of going wide too quickly and players were often isolated and turned over, while not using the forwards to punch holes first and get opponents on the floor, meant Griquas were able to flood the breakdown, winning numerous turnovers.

In the second half, the Bulls showed more patience and the likes of Marco van Staden, Jason Jenkins and replacement eighthman Elrigh Louw were able to get in behind the defending side.

“What was important in the second half was that from playing side-to-side in the first half, we were more direct. We were able to get the forwards with the ball under their arm, Jason Jenkins burst through, so did Elrigh Louw and Marco van Staden had a couple of good runs. We realised after the first half that we had to be more direct in our structure.

“So I told them at the break to be more direct, not to play so much touch rugby in the middle of the field. I was very happy with the set-pieces, we got enough ball and our forwards were relatively strong. I’m happy that we found a way to win,” White said.

The Bulls need to work on their breakdown strategy and need to commit more cleaners on their own ball

The Bulls conceded seven turnovers in the first half, mostly because of isolated players simply being rucked off the ball by the willing Griquas pack. Not enough attention was paid to the clean-out by the Bulls, who wanted players on their feet, but perhaps erred too much in that direction and did not focus enough on ensuring they secured the ball at the breakdown first.

“We didn’t have much rhythm and at times Griquas got away with it at the breakdown, but winning 16 penalties to eight conceded shows we could not complain. Because we had such a good shape against the Sharks two weeks ago, we probably thought things would be a lot easier at the breakdown. We probably should have put one or two more players in early on.

“We did not do enough early on to secure our ball and that gave them a sniff. We were probably a bit seduced by the last game and how easily we got quick ball, so tonight we didn’t think we needed to go in there and fetch it. And the side carrying the ball definitely wasn’t rewarded as much tonight, at one stage we had 65% possession and we were still getting penalised. But we showed we can win ugly, sometimes it’s not easy and you have to do that,” White said.

Morne Steyn did not have his greatest outing but he remains one of the best game-managers around

White admitted that Steyn did not have his best game, but the way the Bulls dominated territory in the final quarter was crucial. Possession was fairly equal throughout the game, but Griquas were forced into trying to play too much rugby in their own half, largely thanks to Steyn’s tactical kicking.

“We didn’t manage the game well enough and we need to be better at that,” Mathie admitted. “Our exits from our own half should have been better and we will be working on our decision-making. We sent too much time in our own half and didn’t exit as well as we should have. Just before halftime, we should have controlled the scrum better and then we would have gone into the second half in the lead.

“Those are the small moments that matter and you need clear heads at those times, you need to eliminate risk. We just needed a few better decisions but we’ve taken a point at Loftus and we will take a lot of energy from that and that we were able to win this game, we did enough to win,” Mathie said.