Ken Borland

Bulls

Positives – Although they lost three of their four games in the UK, there was no doubting the effort the Bulls put in or their desire to learn. From not learning much back home as they dominated all-comers, the Bulls now have a better idea of what works in Europe. The victory over Cardiff and the unfortunate loss to Edinburgh showed they are on the right track. Their only major injury worry is flyhalf Johan Goosen, and Chris Smith or Morne Steyn will adequately fill the breach.

Failures – Their opponents shone a bright light on the Bulls’ breakdown work and they were found wanting at both defensive and attacking rucks. They were caught out by the pace and accuracy which the European teams bringing to the ruck; the Bulls were too often slow to react and also prone to going off their feet or not allowing the half-back clear access by getting caught on the wrong side. They will hope for a slight easing of the tempo under the hot Pretoria sun. Their scrum was also creaking in the last game against Edinburgh.

Stand-out players – Wings Madosh Tambwe and Kurt-Lee Arendse proved a handful for their opponents whenever they were given some space to work their magic. Tambwe has been based in Johannesburg and Durban before Pretoria, but the consistent excellence of his performances on tour suggest the 24-year-old could be settling down with the Bulls.

Arendse is accustomed to playing in cities all over the world through his time with the Springbok Sevens, and he handled European conditions with aplomb, producing slick attacking play whenever he got the chance.

What’s next? – Luck’s been against them so far, but the Bulls face a crunch must-win home game against mighty Munster on November 27 and will also be targeting a bonus point win the following weekend against Scarlets. The match against Munster will be particularly appetising because they are now steered by Johann van Graan, who left the Bulls in 2012 as a highly promising young coach.

“It’s not all doom and gloom, the European teams come to South Africa now and historically we have done really well at home. We look forward to playing in the sun at Loftus Versfeld again and we can now put the overseas sides under pressure now that they have to travel,” coach Jake White said.

Sharks

Positives – The Celtic teams are known for their emphasis on forward play and the Sharks pack were hard-working and generally stood up well to the challenge in the tight. Ruan Pienaar is really growing into his role as the team’s new general, Boeta Chamberlain is steadily improving at flyhalf, and, when the Sharks execute their game-plan properly, they remain very difficult to play against.

Failures – The Sharks had their problems at the breakdown – join the club say the Bulls, Stormers and Lions – and it is a vital part of the game-plan the Sharks want to use. Putting aside the vagaries of law interpretations, the Sharks need a more cohesive, focused effort at the rucks. They also need more cohesion in defence, a couple of early blunders that led to soft tries costing them dearly against Cardiff.

Stand-out players – The doors have opened for young Dylan Richardson to represent Scotland, the country of his father’s birth, and little wonder because the flank cum hooker has been a potent force for the Sharks. Defensively stout, he has been their leading tackler, he is tough to keep out at the breakdown and he smashes through players with ball-in-hand.

What’s next? – The Sharks will see their next two games, against 13^th-placed Scarlets and bottom side Zebre Parma, as a direct route into the top half of the URC table. Playing at Kings Park, nothing less than two bonus point wins will do. Coach Sean Everitt was almost licking his lips when he said last weekend “we are really looking forward to November 27 and playing in front of our home fans.”

There was once again precious little to cheer about for Bulls fans at Loftus Versfeld over the weekend as they went down 13-17 to the Hurricanes, but captain Pierre Spies still believes they are on the right track.

“We believe what we are doing is right, we’re just not executing it well enough. We believe we’re on the right track, although we’re not getting there at the moment,” Spies said after the Bulls’ second successive loss at Loftus Versfeld, where they were unbeaten last season.

For all the big names in the squad, the aura of home invincibility has gone as first a young Stormers pack and now a journeymen Hurricanes eight bossed them around, but Spies is talking as if there are only minor problems to fix.

“You need the bounce of the ball to go your way, although you mustn’t depend on it. I’m hopeful that next week things will fall our way. But we first need to look at ourselves and be more clinical.

“These defeats can still pull the team together, you only learn in tough times, and in 2007 we started with two losses but still had a good season. We’ve worked hard, so I know it will come together,” Spies said.

Spies’s memory of the Bulls’ first SuperRugby title in 2007 is not quite accurate, because they only lost two of their first three games, and only one of those was at home. The Bulls seem to have forgotten the art of winning rugby games when you’re not playing well and coach Frans Ludeke, no doubt feeling the pressure to keep his job, did not tip-toe around their performances in the first fortnight of SuperRugby.

“After two performances like that, you just have to keep quiet and fix it. There are no grey areas, we know what cost us. We have to be more accurate, we have to play with more urgency – we lost a lot of ball at the breakdowns simply because we didn’t have numbers there,” Ludeke said.

The weak refereeing of Andrew Lees at the breakdown certainly had a detrimental effect on the Bulls’ chances, but even there they have only themselves to blame.

Hurricanes coach Chris Boyd said they had “detected” that Lees “lets the contest go on much longer than most” at the breakdown, while the lack of urgency and support play the Bulls showed in getting to the rucks made their one-off ball-carriers easy prey.

The only positives for the Bulls were that flyhalf Handre Pollard had a threatening game with ball in hand and kicked well, Jesse Kriel had some nice runs from fullback, and Trevor Nyakane was solid at tighthead prop.

But it’s been two dismal weeks for the Bulls; the fire has just not been there. One would have expected there to have been a big step up in intensity after the Stormers upstaged them, but if anything, the Bulls were even worse against the Hurricanes.

http://citizen.co.za/331534/bulls-upbeat-despite-two-defeats/

Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer says his team’s rise from number four to number two in the world rankings tells him they are on the right track, but it was the smattering of applause his squad received when they arrived at O.R. Tambo International Airport on Monday that was perhaps an even bigger advisory that the public, his sternest critics, are pleased with his efforts.

It’s hard to remember when the Springboks were last applauded in the arrivals hall at O.R. Tambo, but it must have been 2009 when they returned from Hamilton with the Tri-Nations trophy. Generally, the media gathered for interviews have been the only ones to show much interest, the general public keeping an awkward distance, much like how the employee who got drunk and took all his clothes off at the office Christmas party is treated.

But South Africa’s unbeaten tour of Great Britain and Ireland, the first perfect end-of-year trip since 2008, has enabled Meyer to lift his record in his first year in charge to seven wins, three losses and two draws from 12 Tests. The former Blue Bulls coach has admitted that for him, too, it has been a steep learning curve.

“Our three goals were to remain unbeaten, which has not been done for quite some time on the end-of-year tour, secure the number two ranking and, perhaps most importantly, make our supporters proud. So it was really great to see the support here at the airport.

“It’s been a tough year, we’ve lost three out of 12 Tests, but the great thing is we started at number four on the world rankings and now we’re second. So I’m very happy, especially considering we lost a lot of guys through injury, and we can only grow from here,” Meyer said.

While the likes of Eben Etzebeth, Willem Alberts, Adriaan Strauss, Francois Louw, Marcell Coetzee, Duane Vermeulen and Pat Lambie have stolen the limelight, captain Jean de Villiers has been the unsung hero of the team, alongside ever-present tighthead prop Jannie du Plessis.

De Villiers was initially appointed as captain for just the three June Tests against England, which was quickly extended to the whole year and now, after an often torrid season, Meyer advised that he was unlikely to change captain next year in the light of the calm, intelligent leadership shown by De Villiers.

“Jean has been awesome. He’s one of three players to have started every game this year and he’s also been a great ambassador for the country. In the last three games, he was our main ball-carrier and he gained good ground for us. There’s no reason he shouldn’t be captain again next year,” Meyer said.

The two areas about which Meyer has been most strongly criticised have been the attacking play of his side and his transformation record.

While the wet conditions overseas served to undermine much of their attacking ambition, there were hints against England at Twickenham last weekend that, with Lambie at flyhalf and Juan de Jongh at outside centre, the backline could develop into more of a threat.

The transformation issue is one that all Springbok coaches – save for Peter de Villiers – have had to face, but it is disingenuous to single out Meyer for criticism.

Nine players of colour, including five black Africans, were in the touring squad which is as good a record as any of his predecessors, including De Villiers. With Siya Kolisi out injured, it is difficult to imagine other black players who can feel unfairly treated by not being selected.

Even criticism that these players did not get game time on the tour is unfounded, because there were a heap of white players who also spent the three weeks carrying tackle bags. It’s the nature of sport that not everyone can get a run and even someone like Elton Jantjies, whose form has begun to taper off after a great start to the Currie Cup campaign, was overlooked because Lambie deserved a fair chance to stake his claim at flyhalf.

Meyer’s focus in 2013 should be on wedding better backline attacking play to the formidable pack he is building and the outstanding defence shown on tour. He will also want the team to perform more consistently: they have produced their best for the full 80 minutes perhaps only once this year (against Australia in Pretoria) and the need for a ruthless, killer edge was shown in the last two matches when they allowed both Scotland and England back into contention in Tests that looked done and dusted.

But these lapses of concentration that afflicted the team are in stark contrast to the mental strength they showed in winning all three Tests in Europe despite being in high-pressure situations (even if they were of their own making).

“A lot of guys hadn’t been on an end-of-year tour before and a lot of great players have lost over there. We’d lost the previous Test against Scotland and we’d only won one of the last three in Ireland. I always say there are only two types of rugby: winning rugby and losing rugby. And we won three out of three, so I’ll take that.

“There is still lots of room for improvement, but that will come with experience. It takes a lot of mental effort to grind out wins like that. But we made life hard for ourselves by conceding 17 penalties a game on tour, compared to six per game back at home, so that’s unacceptable and has to change,” Meyer said.

http://dailymaverick.co.za/article/2012-11-27-meyers-mojo-growing-stronger