come now vrede, not only did they score more tries than any of the other semi final teams last year they also conceded more tries so how can you call their defense stingy?

I guess you were also denied access to these stats yourass was banned from Loftus.

Bloed = Bloed
Mei = My

T.oskop you got right!

I do think they are finding out this year that they may have put all their eggs in one basket by relying on the majority of players from 2007..

NZ learnt that lesson in 91..

yep, Smith is my favourite SA player, have huge respect for the way he conducts himself on the field… an honest, hard working Saffa… very very rare indeed they lose a lot without him being there, and I dont think personally that they have an able replacement to step up to the breech…

Smith
Alberts
Brussow
Bench : Burger

Should be more balanced than the current trio

How Spies continues to make the Bok selection grade is a mystery on par with the disappearance of the crew of Mary Celeste, the size of the Denver airport, the identity of the Zodiac killer, and the inner workings of my wife’s mind. A player of his physical stature – lightning fast. 300kg of muscle mass (admittedly, 100kg of that is in his cheeks) – should absolutely dominate the tackle point, instead of displaying a feeble here-let-me-brush-the-dandruff-off-your-collar-and-hopefully-slow-you-down-enough-for-someone-else-to-make-the-hit tackle technique. I’m sure that waif Phillip Burger tackles harder than Spies. It boggles the mind…

I don’t see any problems with the Bulls approach, in fact, a change in the application of the breakdown law where the attacking team, or team in possession got 80% of the calls last year now deliberately trying to be shifted to a more 50/50 situation suggests that a great kicking game and territorially based game might be hugely effective.

My issue with the Bulls, and the reason for my uneasy feeling about them is nothing more than about attitude.

Last year for instance the Bulls were one of the very few SA teams that went to ‘fetch’ tackles beyond the advantage line, nowadays, they wait for teams to run into them.

If you do what they did last year, you will dominate the collissions more effectively also, something they got schooled in over the weekend.

All of this comes down to one thing, attitude. Defense is about attitude and a sure-fire way to measure any team’s on the day.

That is just one aspect.

But the point is attitude would directly affect the application of your game plan, i.e. chasing kicks harder, driving opposition players back in tackles, dominating contact and through that, lift all those around you.

This is quite clearly absent from the Bulls this year.

And it was not only last weekend, let’s be honest, the Bulls were way below standard in their other two fixtures too.

So, it seems, they have got it wrong this time and will have to re-think some approaches. One problem for them that I see is having lost Gary Botha. When you look at revamping a gameplan you do so holistically and you make some assumptions, like that you won’t lose your keyman hooker halfway through the first half of the first game.

It is clear from all three games that the Bulls are investigating the feasibility of a gameplan where they do not cherish possession above all else, ie. if it is bad ball or wrong field position they rather turn it over to the opposition via kicks, relying on being able to regain the ball under more favourable conditions, or try to re-set the phase and move the point of attack, trying to create quicker ball.. But then you have to kick well and contest and protect ball well at ensuing breakdowns, and it is in the latter area that I believe (like Bismark is for the Sharks) that Gary is indispensible for the Bulls in the tight loose. Chilli doesn’t bring that- he has other strengths.

The tight five have also made some uncharacteristic handling errrors which has put great pressure on the team. They do not respect the possession that they obtain, so their frequency of their attacks are diminished, and as a result the variation in their attack is hampered and limited, and in turn this brings a predictability to their play which dumps huge pressure on a player like Wynand Olivier, because he is a go to man for them when under pressure. It also places great pressure on a guy like Spies when the opposition dominate possesion, because then he has to knuckle down and play a strength-based