Ken Borland

It was perhaps even tougher than coach Jake White expected but the Bulls managed to end their tour on a winning note as they beat Benetton 44-22 in their United Rugby Championship match in Treviso on Friday night, but their performance was still not good enough to muzzle their critics.

The Bulls were a puzzle in the first half, showing occasional glimpses of promise but being unable to sustain pressure for long due to unforced errors. Defensively they also failed to contain a physical Benetton team that also attacked with purpose and width.

Were it not for the Bulls managing to stifle Benetton at the breakdown, where Marcell Coetzee led the way in winning numerous turnovers, helped by Bismarck du Plessis and Marco van Staden, the home side would have been much further ahead than 9-3 at halftime.

The Bulls started brightly in the second half, strong driving play by the forwards earning flyhalf Chris Smith a penalty and then a superb carry by flank Van Staden had defenders hanging off him, scrumhalf Embrose Papier was quick to the ball, sniped and broke through and lock Ruan Nortje was up in support as ever for the try.

A 13-12 lead became 20-12 when eighthman Elrigh Louw plunged over for a try from close range, but Benetton were back in front 22-20 by the hour mark as scrumhalf Dewaldt Duvenhage orchestrated a clinical dissection of the Bulls defence for flank Manuel Zuliani to score.

It took a moment of good fortune to shift the momentum as the Bulls escaped sustained pressure inside their 22 when the ball mysteriously popped out on their side. They swept upfield and Smith kicked a penalty to put them back in front 23-22.

Morne Steyn then came on to ensure the Bulls dominated territory in the final quarter, kicking the ball into the corners and the maul was able to set a solid platform. The veteran flyhalf also slotted his conversions from tight angles.

In the last 10 minutes, the Bulls scored three ties as replacement hooker Jan-Hendrik Wessels tidied up well at a five-metre lineout to score, just managing to stay in touch, man of the match Coetzee scored a well-deserved try and Stravino Jacobs rounded off a breakaway in the final minute.

Scorers

Benetton Treviso – Try: Manuel Zuliani. Conversion: Tomas Albornoz. Penalties: Albornoz (5).

Bulls – Tries: Ruan Nortje, Elrigh Louw, Jan-Hendrick Wessels, Marcell Coetzee, Stravino Jacobs. Conversions: Chris Smith (2), Morne Steyn (3). Penalties: Smith (3).

It’s been an absolute age since Munster made such a poor start to their season, but the Bulls also produced their worst performance in a long time last weekend, so their United Rugby Championship clash at Thomond Park on Saturday night is going to be a tense affair.

Munster are currently a lowly 12^th in the URC standings, having lost three of their four games. They have never finished outside the top-10 of the competition in all its previous guises.

The Bulls were hammered 35-21 by Glasgow Warriors last weekend, their first loss this season.

“Munster have not had the best start,” Bulls backline coach Chris Rossouw acknowledged on Tuesday, “but they still have very good players. Plus their Ireland A players will be back from South Africa.

“They have a very good record in Limerick and halfbacks Conor Murray and Ben Healy control the game very well.

“Damian de Allende is a big departure, he is sorely missed by them, you can see that already. But they play the same way as last year with a strong forward pack,” Rossouw said.

The Bulls have also obviously not been at their best, but may well be boosted by the international-class services of flyhalf Johan Goosen and wing Sbu Nkosi this weekend.

Rossouw spoke of the need for them to be able to adapt better to setbacks in the heat of the moment, which is not always easy to do for a young side.

“It was obviously a big disappointment against Glasgow, but if you’re off your game then you will obviously get big points against you, like in Super Rugby. We did not get things right and got a big hiding,” Rossouw said.

“What was frustrating was that we just could not convert. Our maul got disrupted and, although we’re not meant to say it, probably illegally. They also attacked us at the breakdown.

“We’ve cleared up some issues with the referee and we need to do things differently in the maul and sharpen up at the rucks. You can’t have that many opportunities and not convert.

“In the heat of the moment, you need that ability to adapt and make plans. We try and incorporate that into our training, constantly trying to find a different way and how to vary our play,” Rossouw said.

Although Bulls coach Jake White admitted he was “massively disappointed” by their performance and heavy defeat to Glasgow Warriors at the weekend, he said it was not the end of the world, pointing out that at this time last year, the eventual runners-up in the United Rugby Championship had only won one match.

The 35-21 loss was the Bulls’ first in four matches this season, and undoubtedly their most flat, lacklustre performance for a long time.

“Sometimes you just have a bad day at the office, it was difficult today, we had to play catch-up against the pace of the 4G pitch and Glasgow’s accuracy and physicality,” White said.

“We are still a very young group of players, but I told them there are no excuses, sometimes we let teams play well against us. I’m massively disappointed.

“We looked like young boys at times, while they had men, and we missed some tackles. The players know that I am disappointed and they are too. And I can’t fast-forward age or experience.

“But it’s a long tour and season, and one poor game does not mean we can’t still win the competition. This time last year we only had one win and we still made the final. We won’t lie down and die,” White said.

The last time the Bulls came across referee Andrew Brace was in the URC final in June, and White moaned about his performance after their loss to the Stormers. Against Glasgow, it was noticeable how many times the Bulls were penalised at the attacking breakdown inside the Warriors’ 22.

“It’s worrying that Glasgow didn’t concede anything inside our 22, but every time we were in their 22, something would go wrong. There was also Elrigh Louw’s yellow card.

“I can’t understand how every time we were five metres from their line we would make a mistake, but they got everything right in the same position in our half.

“We’ve been very accurate in the 22 with our forwards before, and the players really have no idea what went wrong tonight. And there was cleaning past the ball when you’re not allowed to touch the scrumhalf.

“But those are not the reasons we lost – we played poorly, we weren’t up for it and we looked lethargic – blame that, not two or three calls. It’s the nature of the competition away from home,” White said.

It was also quite a voyage for the Bulls to get to Glasgow in the northern United Kingdom. They had to travel for 24 hours, flying to Doha and then Edinburgh, before catching a bus to Glasgow. But White said that did not excuse their display.

“The travel is not an excuse. The Lions went for 27 hours and they have won all three of their games,” White stated.

The Proteas have much to ponder ahead of the second T20 against India in Guwahati on Sunday, following their dismal batting performance in the first match that saw their top-order utterly fail, sinking to 9-5.

While the fight shown by Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram and Wayne Parnell with the bat was pleasing, setting a target of just 107 for victory was never going to give India much pause for thought, even on a pitch which was made to look like a minefield by the South African top-order.

While there are some injury doubts over wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock after he needed on-field treatment for a blow to the fingers while trying to take a leg-side wide from fast bowler Anrich Nortje, whether the formerly prolific left-hander should be in the team even if fit is also starting to cause debate.

De Kock has scored just 137 runs in his last 12 T20 innings for the Proteas, and is striking at just 103.78.

Amongst all the other worries about the batting, the loss of form of their talismanic opener is the last thing the Proteas need.

While the South Africans were still trying to digest their batting display, Indian spearhead Jasprit Bumrah received the awful news that he probably has a stress fracture of the back and has been withdrawn from the series and is likely to miss the T20 World Cup.

The fact that the Proteas were reduced to 9-5 by India’s second-choice new-ball pairing of Arshdeep Singh and Deepak Chahar, with Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar not even playing, makes their batting effort even more terrible.

With their captain, Temba Bavuma, under immense pressure to score runs, they have now got themselves into a pickle with the skipper getting a duck in the first match. Interestingly, Bavuma has actually scored 237 runs in his last 12 T20 innings for South Africa, at a strike-rate of 111.26.

So De Kock, with a hundred runs less and an inferior run-rate, should certainly be in the conversation when it comes to changes. It would be an awfully big step for the selectors to make, but it is a shocking waste of form to see the prolific Reeza Hendricks not playing.

But bringing in Hendricks for De Kock would necessitate another change with Heinrich Klaasen needing to come in and keep wicket, unless the gloves are entrusted to Tristan Stubbs, who is very much a part-timer.

It’s a dreadful mess the selectors have got themselves into.