Ken Borland

Ripped apart by Benetton Treviso on one of the most frustrating days in Bulls history, coach Jake White decried the “arrogance” of South African rugby that saw most pundits and fans expecting the local champions to just rock up in Europe and win the Rainbow Cup final.

The Bulls were meant to be triumphant forerunners of a wave of South African teams entering and dominating European competition via the new United Rugby Championship, but instead there will now be many questions overseas as to what our teams are going to add to the proud Celtic league.

Ponderous, one-dimensional and error-prone in comparison with an impressive Benetton side that produced some dazzling rugby, the Bulls were hammered 35-8.

“It would be a bit arrogant to think that we could just arrive in Italy and beat a club side and then fly home. Sometimes as a coach you just have to take it, tactically Benetton were very smart and there was no one area where we stamped our mark, we were a bit short in everything. But I’m a realist and that’s the first time many of this team felt pressure like that.

“Benetton have a lot of experienced Test players, they’ve played against England at Twickenham and France in Paris, and when you get them here at home, they can play. We looked inexperienced and we can blame that, the heat or the crowd, but at the end of the day we got it wrong. It was up to us to find a way, to do things differently,” White said.

While the Bulls have basically physically-dominated everyone back at home, it is clear that they play a more highbrow form of rugby in Europe and the South African teams are going to have to adapt very quickly. South Africa’s dominant team have just been handed a whipping by a team, impressive as they were on the day, no-one in Europe seriously thinks is better than big guns Leinster, Munster and Ulster, never mind the Champions Cup teams.

“It’s a completely different game up North and Benetton are a well-coached team who played really well. We did not enjoy it today being convincingly beaten, but we have got to find our feet. Hopefully this loss makes us so much better and I’m glad for the opportunity to grow as a team. Our youngsters have now seen that it’s a completely different game up here.

“To the other South African teams I would say ‘Don’t come here thinking it’s the same as what you’re used to’. It’s a totally different sort of defence and attack that you play against, homework and analysis is going to be so important. Back home we know the teams and players and we thought we have been clinical there, but we have never been punished for not kicking the ball out like we were here,” White admitted.

The Bulls often moan about the stereotype that portrays them as playing ponderous, one-dimensional kicking rugby but they did that and more in the Rainbow Cup final as they were deservedly hammered 35-8 by an underdog Benetton Treviso side that were full of vigour and invention.

The Bulls’ physicality and intensity were meant to be their trumpcards but Benetton, guided by an astute Kiwi coach in Kieran Crowley, merely speeded the game up in hot, humid conditions, getting the ball quickly out of the collisions areas, and with physical contests stripped of their importance, the visiting side were left looking like dumb brutes. Outscored by five tries to one, the Bulls embarrassingly lost by the sort of scoreline many expected to be their winning margin.

In many ways the Bulls were the architects of their own demise as they consistently failed to kick the ball into touch even if just to slow Benetton down; flyhalf Chris Smith perhaps had concussion judging by the shiner he took the field with because his head was not in the game as he constantly fed the dangerous Treviso back three.

Their lineouts were scrappy – tapped balls leading to two tries – and even their rolling maul failed to gain much traction. There were basic errors aplenty in one of the most frustrating Bulls days for many years.

The Bulls did score via a maul, and the quick thinking of wing Madosh Tambwe, to go into the last 10 minutes of the first half level at 8-8. But eighthman and captain Marcell Coetzee, who produced a strangely timid display for someone who wants to force their way back into the Springbok squad, then allowed a restart to go over his head and bounce into touch. Lock Walt Steenkamp tapped instead of catching the ball, scrumhalf Ivan van Zyl was caught between passing or dotting down, and hooker Corniel Els pounced for the try.

The former Bulls man was then the central figure as Benetton scored on the stroke of halftime to take their lead to 20-8. A clever kick behind by scrumhalf Dewaldt Duvenhage saw the Bulls again struggle to clear their lines properly, another tapped lineout putting them under pressure, and Els then burst from a rolling maul but lost the ball over the line. A penalty try was awarded though because Stravino Jacobs, who was yellow-carded, had tackled him around the neck. It was a fair decision, because either Els or Duvenhage would certainly have scored.

Benetton flyhalf Paolo Garbisi produced a masterclass at flyhalf and he continued to boss the second half as the home side scored three more tries, continuing to create space out wide with ease.

The big question the Springboks will be asking ahead of their crunch series against the British and Irish Lions is whether this feeble display by the team that has been so dominant at home was just an awful day in the office or indicative of the poor standard of South African rugby?

Scorers

Benetton Treviso: Tries – Monty Ioane, Corniel Els, penalty try, Michele Lamaro, Edoardo Padovani. Conversion – Paolo Garbisi. Penalties – Garbisi (2).

Bulls: Try – Madosh Tambwe. Penalty – Chris Smith.

A young Bulls side has this week gone from sleeping under their eiderdown duvets in midwinter on the Highveld to a summer cruise around some Mediterranean islands as they prepare for the unknown – a Rainbow Cup final against Benetton in Treviso on Saturday evening.

What they do know is that they are expected to win the final, which is why coach Jake White tried to ease the pressure on them this week by giving them a day off to explore the area around nearby Venice and the worthy history of Italy. The Bulls have a proud record of winning all three Super Rugby finals they played in, and they have also won every decisive game in the time White has been at Loftus Versfeld. If that were not a lot to live up to, they also have the responsibility of being the trailblazers for South African franchises in Europe. They will want to show the new boys in Europe are going to bring a high quality of rugby.

“There’s massive pressure with all these must-win games and these are young guys, we forget how young they are sometimes. Which is why we went on a boat cruise and just chilled at an island off Venice. There’s also a lot of excitement in the squad and hopefully we can translate that energy into a great performance.

“These are extraordinary times and hopefully all the hype in Treviso – meeting the mayor, the functions in the city square – leads to the final being a great catalyst, both for us starting to play our rugby in Europe, the British and Irish Lions coming to South Africa and the new United Rugby Championship. People want to see how good we are and it’s going to be good to measure ourselves,” White said on Friday.

Like the wine-makers farming grapes 30km north-west of Treviso who anxiously watch the weather for climate-change induced hot spells that give their precious berries sunburn, Benetton coach Kieran Crowley has been watching the sky and knows what’s coming.

“We know what’s coming – a massive scrum, strong lineout and they love to maul. They’ll bring physicality, which we’ll look to nullify so we can concentrate on our own game. Hopefully we can combat it,” Crowley said.

Like migrant birds flying from their wintering grounds to their summer breeding spots, the Bulls find themselves in a very warm and muggy Treviso and they are hoping to bring the heat and catch Benetton by surprise in their Rainbow Cup final at the Stadio Monigo on Saturday evening.

Having swept all before them in South Africa over the last year, the Bulls have gone to Italy as the winners of the southern leg of the competition, to take on the European winners, a Benetton side that have surprised all and sundry with their resurgence in the last couple of months.

The last trophy presentation the Bulls enjoyed was when they won the Currie Cup at the height of our summer, and their winter work has involved finishing top of the franchises involved in the Rainbow Cup. But the temperature is expected to rise to above 30⁰ on Saturday in north-eastern Italy, so that will take some adapting to. Coach Jake White said though that he hoped the intensity of the Bulls’ play will force Benetton to do some adapting of their own.

“The nice thing is we played through the summer in South Africa so we’re used to weather like this. I hope we can play with the same tempo and pace that we did then and hopefully that surprises Benetton. We’ve had a year of really tough derby rugby, so hopefully that helps us as well. Having been together as a team for a lot longer now, our ball-in-play time has also improved and we’ve seen the effect of that.

“But Benetton have done really well, they’re the only unbeaten side, they beat Connacht, who beat Munster who had just beaten Leinster. Plus Benetton are playing at home while we have to adapt to travel, and 11 of their team started for Italy against Scotland not that long ago, so we are up against international players. Now that we’re in the Northern Hemisphere, it will be good to measure ourselves,” White said on Friday.

While the Bulls are breaking new ground for South African rugby, they do have some experience in the kitty of what to expect in the form of captain Marcell Coetzee and lock Jan Uys, who have both played in Italy before.

“It’s fantastic to have Marcell’s experience, he played here for Ulster, they won by three points and it was a struggle. Jan Uys also played in this competition, in Italy, for Brive and that experience is a must-have, especially with no Duane Vermeulen, Morne Steyn, Marco van Staden and Arno Botha. When I was coaching in France, we played against a couple of Italian sides and they do present a bit of a different package in terms of strategy,” White said.

“It’s actually the first time I have experienced so much heat in Europe, but there are no excuses, we have to adapt if we want to be champions,” Coetzee said. “I told the players we will need to control our emotional levels, we need to be relaxed and calm, but we are going to be in some dark places and then it’s about who wants it more. Fortunately this team has been playing finals and winning … ”