Ken Borland

Sluggish and on the back foot from the outset, the Bulls were torn to shreds by the Glasgow Warriors on the 4G pitch at Scotstoun, being hammered 35-21 in their United Rugby Championship match on Saturday night.

On a rainy night in Glasgow, the Warriors were on fire from the start, backing their expansive intentions and showing they had the skills to pull it off. But a Bulls side that relies so much on their physicality was strangely passive and they were outworked and outmuscled at the rucks and on the gainline. The fact that they were passive on defence was probably the biggest indictment of their effort.

Glasgow scored two tries in the first 11 minutes to give themselves a healthy lead, especially with the rain, but the Bulls did fight back with a Kurt-Lee Arendse try after Cornal Hendrikse capitalised on a loose ball thanks to pressure by Elrigh Louw.

But the second quarter saw both lock Scott Cummings and scrumhalf George Horne take advantage of lacklustre defending and Glasgow were 28-7 up at halftime.

When the Warriors scored again eight minutes into the second half, wing Sebastian Cancelliere combining slickly with fullback Josh McKay, the Bulls were 35-7 down and on a hiding to nothing.

The second half did not have the spark of the first, but the Bulls were totally lacking the attacking accuracy to claw their way back into the match. The attacking breakdown was the biggest issue for them and penalties there, as well as a few handling errors, accounted for the ball being turned over nine times in promising positions inside the Glasgow 22.

The fire that was so lacking in the Bulls side finally made an appearance when eighthman Louw tussled with Horne on the ground, both of the players being sent to the sin bin for their troubles.

The Bulls did have a chance of earning a couple of points on the log after Bismarck du Plessis burrowed over for their second try on the hour mark. But the Janko Swanepoel try in the final minute was the only addition to their score.

The territory that set up both second-half tries came from scrum penalties, probably the only area of the game where the Bulls were better than the opposition.

Scorers

Glasgow Warriors – Tries: Matt Fagerson, Sebastian Cancelliere, Scott Cummings, George Horne, Josh McKay. Conversions: Horne (5).

Bulls – Tries: Kurt-Lee Arendse, Bismarck du Plessis, Janko Swanepoel. Conversions: Chris Smith (2), Morne Steyn.

Facing a tough away match at Scotstoun, Bulls coach Jake White does not know whether the wind will howl or not, but one thing that is within his control is team selection and he revealed on Friday that he will not risk flyhalf Johan Goosen against Glasgow Warriors on their artificial pitch.

Goosen, who will probably be on the Springboks’ end-of-year tour, has started just one game at flyhalf since rupturing his knee three games into last season on the artificial pitch in Cardiff. But even though the 30-year-old needs game time and White has also been robbed of backline stars Canan Moodie and Sbu Nkosi due to injury, Goosen will not feature for the Bulls in their United Rugby Championship match against Glasgow Warriors on Saturday night.

“I’m not going to risk Johan on a 4G pitch. They don’t play any Test rugby on those pitches for a reason, it’s because more players get injured on that surface,” White stated on Friday.

“He has just come back from 11 months out after an horrific injury on that sort of pitch. I took the decision myself, I did not ask him. If you look at the history of those 4G pitches, there have been a lot of injuries and I don’t want to take the risk.

“I have confidence in Chris Smith and Morne Steyn, they have done exceptionally well the times we have called on them,” White said.

While there is expected to be a low chance of rain in Glasgow on Saturday night, and just a gentle breeze, White did say he was concerned about the wind strengthening.

“Scotstoun can be very windy, which can be a massive factor in the way we want to play, sometimes it makes it very difficult to play too much rugby,” White said.

“We will have to see how the weather is, it is very influential here, and we might have to kick more. That’s also a skill and creating pressure points is a part of attack too.

“Rain will not be so much of a problem, but a massive amount of wind will be, whether you’re playing against it or with it. It’s a very open stadium and our stadiums at home are closed in.

“If you’re against the wind at the back end of the match and chasing the game, then it becomes very difficult. We also have to learn to use the wind when it is in our favour,” White said.

Added to the change in conditions from back in Pretoria, White pointed out that Glasgow Warriors are always a formidable challenge at home.

“They only lost once at home last year and their one game at home this season they have won convincingly. Coach Franco Smith has lots of experience and he has done well with the Free State Cheetahs and Italy.

“Plus Glasgow have a couple of injured players coming back, which is going to make their forward pack more staunch. Last week was obviously a rebound result for them, and I have no doubt they will want another,” White said.

Bulls: Kurt-Lee Arendse, Cornal Hendricks, Lionel Mapoe, David Kriel, Stedman Gans, Chris Smith, Zak Burger, Elrigh Louw, Marco Van Staden, Marcell Coetzee (capt), Ruan Nortjé, Walt Steenkamp, Francois Klopper, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Gerhard Steenekamp. Bench – Bismarck du Plessis, Simphiwe Matanzima, Mornay Smith, Janko Swanepoel, Reinhardt Ludwig, Embrose Papier, Morné Steyn, Wandisile Simelane.

There is an old rugby cliche that defence shows the character and unity of a team, and the Bulls must be a tight-knit family indeed judging by the great defensive display they produced in beating Connacht 28-14 in their United Rugby Championship match at Loftus Versfeld on Friday night.

While the Bulls did some good things on attack, two of their four tries coming from offensive moves, it was their defence – smart, physical and untiring – that was the outstanding feature of their play.

Connacht only managed to breach the swarming Bulls defence after referee Andrea Piardi had given the home side their third yellow card. The three naughty kids were Marco van Staden, Johan Goosen and Jan-Hendrik Wessels, and all of them were for offences deemed to have occurred in the tackle, whether dangerous, high or late.

Clearly the Bulls’ defensive steel was a bit too intimidating for the referee.

Connacht were also unable to make the most of their possession thanks to the Bulls’ excellent efforts at the breakdown, where the likes of Van Staden, hookers Johan Grobbelaar and Wessels, and flank Marcell Coetzee were scavenging like a pack of hungry hyenas.

Captain Coetzee gave his usual industrial-strength display of power, muscling over for an important try on the stroke of halftime that put the Bulls 21-0 up at the break.

They had scored their first two tries in the first 10 minutes, the defensive pressure leading to an early dropped pass which was snapped up by fullback Kurt-Lee Arendse, who ran 75 metres to score; three minutes later, flyhalf Goosen kept a couple of defenders busy before putting Cornal Hendricks in the gap, Canan Moodie’s mazy run was stopped inside the 22, lock Walt Steenkamp was held up just short, but scrumhalf Zak Burger then went over for the try.

The Bulls scored their fourth and final try when centre David Kriel delayed his pass beautifully to put lock Ruan Nortje through the hole, from where Burger was found in support, roaring over for his second try, and the Bulls’ last, six minutes into the second half.

In between the tries, the Bulls had to show great industry in defence, especially since the referee’s whistle was as undermining for them as State Capture has been on South Africa’s economy. The lineout was also a highly profitable area for them.

Connacht were eventually on the board in the 68th minute through replacement prop Jack Aungier, and then when the Bulls lost another man because they were forced into uncontested scrums due to Wessels’ yellow card and Grobbelaar being injured, flyhalf David Hawkshaw charged down a Chris Smith clearance and scored.

By the end of this stop-start affair, dominated by officialdom, many in the crowd were more interested in watching their fellow spectators build multi-storey beer snakes out of their empty cups.

Scorers

Bulls: Tries – Kurt-Lee Arendse, Zak Burger (2), Marcell Coetzee. Conversions – Johan Goosen (4).

Connacht: Tries – Jack Aungier, David Hawkshaw. Conversions – Hawkshaw (2).

Ill-discipline in a rugby team is a great evil for coaches and Jake White was firm on the Bulls team’s failings in that regard in their 28-14 victory over Connacht in their United Rugby Championship match in Pretoria at the weekend.

The Bulls were incredible in defence and at times inspired in attack as they surged into a 28-0 lead after 46 minutes, but they felt the wrath of referee Andrea Piardi in the second half as Connacht finished strongly with two converted tries. In the end the home side conceded 20 penalties, and Connacht 15, while the Bulls were also given three yellow cards.

“I’m not going to justify the discipline,” coach White said afterwards. “I’m not going to sugarcoat it, we shot ourselves in the foot doing some stupid things.

“Johan Goosen was a bit unlucky, but head-to-head contact is a yellow card these days. I just hope the referees make sure they blow it that way for the whole competition.

“We play against Glasgow Warriors in Scotland next weekend and you’re not going to win too many games when you’re playing 14 against 15 men for 30 minutes, especially on tour. We spoke about the discipline after the match, but it’s no use just talking about it, there needs to be action.

“That should be driven by the players, not the coaches, and they will do that, Marcell Coetzee already told the team in the changeroom now that they have to sharpen up their discipline,” White said.

White was full of praise, however, for a top-class defensive display that held at bay a Connacht side that showed a willingness to play expansive, ball-in-hand rugby. The Bulls did not concede a single point until the 68^th minute, and that was after they had been sapped by three yellow cards and were playing with 13 men due to replacement hooker Jan-Hendrik Wessels being in the sin-bin, necessitating uncontested scrums and the loss of another player.

“The defence was outstanding, considering we played eight minutes with 13 men and 30 minutes with 14,” White said. “Last week it was poor, but we spoke honestly about it and had a better shape today.

“We stopped them carrying around us and then we stopped them carrying through us. It shows me that we can defend, which is a massive bonus.

“The defence also really understood the breakdown, we were a lot smarter there, we didn’t just go in.

“Defence is not always just about line-speed, sometimes we had to be patient because they had the numbers. There was a recognition of when you need to buy time,” White said.

The smart, physical and untiring defence of the Bulls made it an uphill struggle for Connacht as they were already 14-0 down after 10 minutes and captain Jarrad Butler credited the home side for the pressure they exerted.

“It was a really good job by the Bulls defence, they forced us back inside and we had to keep resetting. Credit to them for forcing the individual errors that would keep creeping in, that meant we just could not finish off, we kept just giving them the ball,” Butler said.