Ken Borland

The Bulls may not have displayed many pleasing attacking shapes, but there was no denying the efficiency of their brute strength as they overpowered Glasgow Warriors 29-17 in their United Rugby Championship match at Loftus Versfeld on Friday night.

Their dominance only really came through in the last 50 minutes though, with Glasgow only able to add to the try and penalty they scored in the first 20 minutes when there were five minutes left in the match. Despite their best efforts to slow the game down through spoiling tactics and continual breaks for ‘injury’ attention, the visitors were still sluggish and tentative when it came to trying to stop the Bulls’ charge once it gained momentum.

But despite the stop/start nature of the game in the first half, the Bulls were also to blame for their lack of momentum because they had precious little rhythm on attack.

The home side knew they were in for a tough evening as Glasgow were awarded a penalty try (and a yellow card to Elrigh Louw) in the fifth minute, after the Bulls had made a mess of defending a five-metre lineout maul, and then a penalty by Warriors flyhalf Duncan Weir.

The Bulls replied though with a try when lock Ruan Nortje darted just short of the line and scrumhalf Zak Burger completed the touchdown, and a Morne Steyn penalty drew them level after 28 minutes.

And they never looked back, helped by a crucial try after the halftime whistle when Louw charged around the back of a lineout and created the space for wing Madosh Tambwe to score out wide.

Two massive mauls which ran the Warriors back into their 22 and a powerful charge by lock Walt Steenkamp added a third try in the 58^th minute, and the bonus point was in the bag after 62 minutes as livewire hooker Johan Grobbelaar won a turnover penalty and replacement flank Cyle Brink forced his way over after a series of pick-and-goes by the forwards off the lineout.

That put the Bulls into a commanding 29-10 lead and they were perhaps guilty of losing concentration a bit in the last 10 minutes, and Glasgow duly punished them with a try when fullback Ollie Smith knifed through midfield.

Scorers

Bulls – Tries: Zak Burger, Madosh Tambwe, Walt Steenkamp, Cyle Brink. Conversions: Morne Steyn (3). Penalty: Steyn.

Glasgow Warriors – Tries: Penalty try, Ollie Smith. Conversion: Ross Thompson. Penalty: Duncan Weir.

The Stormers showed last weekend just how effective a powerful scrum is against the Glasgow Warriors, but Bulls coach Jake White also wants to use the lineout to attack the Scottish playoff contenders in their United Rugby Championship match at Loftus Versfeld on Friday night.

The Glasgow scrum struggled to take the heat put on them by Frans Malherbe and Steven Kitshoff in Cape Town, but White said on Thursday that the Bulls don’t have the luxury of Springbok props, so they will be looking to the lineout to also put the Warriors under pressure.

The visitors’ lineout is, however, led by the lighthouse-like figure of veteran lock Richie Gray, who has played 67 Tests for Scotland.

“We don’t have the luxury of a great scrum with incumbent Test props, but we need to find a way to use it as an attacking platform, be clever with it and not just use it to bail us out and get a penalty,” White said.

“It’s a significant difference between how rugby is played locally and overseas, where the scrum is used as an attacking platform, compared to being used here as a way to get a penalty and territory.

“But the lineout can also be used as a different form of attack, like the Canterbury Crusaders or Leicester Tigers do – you can maul, go off the top, come round the front or the back, or use overthrows.

“It’s an area of the game that has changed a lot because the referees are strict on the backs not coming in too soon. So you can have changes of tempo there, you can play quickly if you want,” White said.

While the selection of a counter-attacker like Canan Moodie to replace the injured Kurt-Lee Arendse at fullback shows that the Bulls will still want to give the ball plenty of air, especially if Glasgow – who like to kick for territory – are inaccurate with the boot, White said he had chosen Morne Steyn as his starting flyhalf for a specific reason he did not want to divulge.

Perhaps Steyn’s ability to mail monster kicks deep into opposition territory and then putting the Warriors lineout under pressure is the reason.

And then when the visitors are ailing from altitude in the second half, impact players like Chris Smith, Cyle Brink and Harold Vorster can come off the bench and play some exciting rugby.

Bulls team:Canan Moodie, James Verity-Amm, Lionel Mapoe, Cornal Hendricks, Madosh Tambwe, Morne Steyn, Zak Burger; Elrigh Louw, Arno Botha, Marcell Coetzee (CAPT), Ruan Nortje, Walt Steenkamp, Mornay Smith, Johan Grobbelaar, Gerhard Steenekamp. IMPACT-Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Simphiwe Matanzima, Dylan Smith, Janko Swanepoel, Cyle Brink, Embrose Papier, Chris Smith, Harold Vorster.

If you are used to some of the Bulls sides of old, you would not believe it but current coach Jake White has prioritised a counter-attacking fullback, which is why he has shifted wing Canan Moodie to No.15, in place of the injured Kurt-Lee Arendse, for their United Rugby Championship clash with Glasgow Warriors at Loftus Versfeld on Friday night.

Arendse, who has shown marvellous ball skills and the ability to regularly ghost past defenders on his way to seven tries in this season’s tournament, fractured his thumb last weekend against Benetton Treviso. White described it on Thursday as a relatively minor injury similar to the one that kept Stormers star Warrick Gelant out for a few weeks.

“Kurt-Lee got injured in the 60^th minute and then after the game he felt his hand was a bit sore after the adrenalin wore off. He came to training on Monday and the hand was a bit bruised,” White explained.

“The scans showed a little hairline fracture at the bottom of the thumb and he had a screw put in which should help the bone heal quicker, hopefully it gets him back on the field sooner.

“It’s an injury like Warrick had, with the associated ligament damage, which could take four-to-six weeks, but hopefully sooner because Kurt-Lee is very important to us.

“The way we attack requires a different kind of fullback to say a David Kriel, Kurt-Lee’s type of fullback has worked well for us. And the competition as a whole has shown that a fullback that can attack from the back works – for example Warrick,” White said.

The well-travelled World Cup winning coach likes the idea of backs who can play in several different positions, and the versatile James Verity-Amm comes in on the right wing to replace Moodie, while former Springbok wing Cornal Hendricks will continue his midfield partnership with Lionel Mapoe, with specialist inside centre Harold Vorster on the bench upon his return from a positive Covid test.

“Canan has run a few times at fullback in training and James can play both fullback and wing. It’s a good opportunity to see how Canan goes at fullback with mature and older wings around him in James and Madosh Tambwe,” White said.

“In the 2003 World Cup, Australia played Latham, Roff, Rogers, Larkham and Burke, who were all fullbacks. If you’re good enough, you should be able to play anywhere.

“It’s just about balancing the combinations, and the number on your back is not important in multi-phase attack. Jonah Lomu played eighthman at school and was one of the greatest wings ever.

“Tiaan Strauss and Morne du Plessis both played fullback and centre before moving into the pack; Danie Craven played in a handful of positions for South Africa. So it’s nothing new.

“It’s the way the game is going now, the more versatile you are the better. To use a chess analogy, having more Queens would be better that having just Pawns that can only play in certain ways,” White said.

Bulls team:Canan Moodie, James Verity-Amm, Lionel Mapoe, Cornal Hendricks, Madosh Tambwe, Morne Steyn, Zak Burger; Elrigh Louw, Arno Botha, Marcell Coetzee (CAPT), Ruan Nortje, Walt Steenkamp, Mornay Smith, Johan Grobbelaar, Gerhard Steenekamp. IMPACT-Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Simphiwe Matanzima, Dylan Smith, Janko Swanepoel, Cyle Brink, Embrose Papier, Chris Smith, Harold Vorster.

The second-half comeback by the Sharks will please coach Sean Everitt, but he will be dismayed by the unfocused start they made to the match as they went down 35-24 to Glasgow Warriors in their United Rugby Championship match at Scotstoun on Saturday.

From the moment the Sharks allowed Glasgow wing Rufus McLean to run almost from 22 to 22 from the kickoff, leading to a second-minute try for the home side, it was clear the visitors were not switched on from the start. And it proved crucial as the Warriors scored three times in the first quarter to rattle up a 21-0 lead. The Sharks did manage to score a tap-and-go try by lock Le Roux Roets, but they were still 28-10 down at halftime, a lead that was stretched to 35-10 three minutes into the second half. But then the Sharks belatedly cut out the ill-discipline and basic errors, and dominated the second half to show what could have been.

“We thought it was a game that we could win if we gave a good, disciplined performance. But we conceded five penalties in quick succession in the first half and that put us under the pump,” Everitt said.

“It’s very difficult on a 4G [artificial] pitch once the opposition are behind you or get ascendancy. It’s very difficult to stop their momentum.

“But the fact that we only conceded 10 penalties overall is exactly why the second half was so much better. Our lineout and scrum improved, those were pleasing aspects that made it a smoother second half.

“I thought we were unlucky not to get a fourth try and two points on the log, but there were a lot of improvements in only our second game in the Northern Hemisphere,” Everitt said.

Moving Ruan Pienaar to flyhalf certainly seemed to help, because he and Boeta Chamberlain did not really stamp their mark on the game as a halfback combination. The Sharks’ backline produced some slick attacking play in the second half, and the pack showed their power as props Thomas du Toit and Ntuthuko Mchunu both scored tries.

Everitt is confident that, in the long run, and the URC is a very long competition, these sort of experiences will be good for a young Sharks side.

“There’s a big hole left by the 12 regular starters who are not here and we have to field a lot of youngsters, but it’s really good experience for them against international players.

“We will get better and we are learning hard lessons. It’s important that we stay the course and keep improving,” Everitt said.

Scorers

Glasgow Warriors – Tries: Ross Thompson, Ryan Wilson, Jamie Bhatti, Cole Forbes (2). Conversions: Thompson (5).

Sharks – Tries: Le Roux Roets, Thomas du Toit, Ntuthuko Mchunu. Conversions: Curwin Bosch (3). Penalty: Bosch.