Ken Borland

Stormers coach John Dobson admitted that the Bulls had played them off the park in their Super Rugby Unlocked match at Loftus Versfeld at the weekend, with play being called off at the 63-minute mark with the Bulls enjoying  commanding 39-6 lead.

Dobson pointed to the fact that the Stormers were about to enjoy their first put-in at a scrum when the match was ended due to lightning as a measure of how error-free the Bulls were, and their coach Jake White admitted that his team were certainly where they wanted to be at this stage of the season, and probably playing better than he expected.

“As a coach, one can always be critical of little things and we will learn from those and get better. But I’m looking forward to where we will be in two months’ time if this is the sort of improvement the guys are showing now. We are where we want to be, considering that we haven’t been together for long, only four or five weeks. So the future just looks good.

“But we have won nothing yet and we will prepare the same every week, and make sure we still keep our detail sharp. We have a good group of players and I’m looking forward to seeing how they grow. We managed to hold on to the ball and the first 40 minutes are the best rugby the Bulls have played in a long time. What I enjoy the most was the continuity we played with,” White said after the match.

The game was touted as being a massive forward battle, but predictions of an intense, tight match were made foolish by the Bulls forwards putting in an exceptional display.

“The forwards were outstanding, the scrum and the maul, but I was especially pleased with their ability to adapt and the interplay between backs an forwards was very pleasing. We knew the Stormers would use their forward pack to get out of trouble and our plan was to nullify them and get them to play out of their own half. The game hasn’t changed and it’s still your pack of forwards that wins you the game.

“Our pack was outstanding, the scrums were very good and the way they carried the ball, their offloading, and the way they played between the backs was great. They gave the platform for the backs to play. And then watching Morne Steyn and Ivan van Zyl and the impact they made was great, and I’m really enjoying the combination at centre between Stedman Gans and Cornal Hendricks,” White said.

Listening to Western Province coach John Dobson talking about the Blue Bulls having all the pressure as favourites in this weekend’s Currie Cup semi-final, it reminds one of the same stage of the competition last year when the Capetonians came to Pretoria and upset the home side.

Bulls lock RG Snyman is well aware of the history and is eager to avoid the same painful result this time around.

“We were in the same situation last year playing against Western Province at Loftus Versfeld and we’d like to change what happened in that game. The way we do that is by not changing what we’ve been doing this season, we have to stick to what we’ve been doing. But the good thing is that this semi-final feels like nothing new, it’s quite a difference playing it now when we’ve all been through another whole Currie Cup season and a season of Super Rugby,” Snyman told The Citizen on Tuesday.

The Bulls have focused on an exciting brand of rugby, but they went down 23-18 to Western Province in last year’s semi-final thanks to the visitors not allowing them any platform or space to play the type of rugby they wanted to produce.

This year they come to Pretoria with a much-less hardened pack and the Bulls youngsters are all a year older and coming into their prime, most notably Snyman, who turned 21 only this year.

“Western Province have a good pack and it will definitely be a physical battle, especially in the set-pieces. But if we can dominate at forward then we should do really well. With the break we’ve had a bit more time to prepare and the team has clicked a bit better through the competition. Hopefully we’ll see that greater experience and better cohesion come through now at the end of the tournament,” Snyman said.

Springbok reserve hooker Bongi Mbonambi will be coming to Loftus, as should prop Oli Kebble and lock JD Schickerling, and the Bulls are going to have to show some real grunt up front to ensure they make the final.