Bulls need to fix the fissure in their confidence away from home 0
Their troubles overseas may have caused a slight fissure in the Bulls’ confidence and coach Jake White said on Wednesday that their crunch United Rugby Championship match against the Sharks in Durban on Friday night will be a real examination of how good the Currie Cup champions really are away from home.
The Bulls have been well-nigh unbeatable at Loftus Versfeld, but they won just one of their four URC matches in the UK and they were beaten by the Sharks in their last visit to Kings Park, in the Currie Cup in August. White is also expecting the Sharks to field many of their nine current Springboks.
“It’s going to be almost like playing an international team with nine Springboks, a Scottish international in Dylan Richardson, and Samoan (OJ Noa) and Australian (Ben Tapuai) Test players,” White said on Wednesday.
“So it’s a massive game for us against the strongest possible Sharks team, and it’s away from home. It’s not just another local derby because it comes on the back of two Currie Cup finals we won against them.
“It’s going to be a massive test of whether we are good enough to win away from home against a star-studded team, a great opportunity to see how good we are. This one is different, it has added spice.
“So the buzz at training this week has been a little like before a Test match and that comes on its own before a massive challenge. Everyone wants to have a crack at those players,” White said.
While White gave his players three weeks off upon their return from Britain because the mental stress of playing so much rugby in Covid bubbles was beginning to tell, he said they have been hard at work since then rectifying some of the areas in which they were exposed on their tour.
“We learnt a lot on tour with different players coming up against you. We thought we were in a good place after the Currie Cup only to find things that really needed to be looked at in our game.
“The breakdown was one, both attacking and in defence, and in terms of attack, we need to develop as a team, we can’t stay in the same groove, we need to work on how we want to use the players in our team.
“The athletic ability of all the players overseas was an eye-opener, their footwork and handling skills. You think you have them cornered and then their skills get them out of the hole.
“The body shapes and abilities of the players overseas was a bit different to what we’re used to and the refereeing was different too – subtleties in defence and attack that would probably be blown here,” White said.