Bullies not bossing the playground
21 Mar 2011
RYAN VREDE writes the Bulls’ consistent failure to impose themselves at the collisions is at the root of their mediocrity.
Last week week I argued that the Bulls’ struggles in their first three matches stemmed from their inability to repel their opponents at the gain line. On average their opponents in those matches won that contest 80% of the time. I predicted they would improve against the Stormers. Instead, they regressed badly.
The importance of solid gain line defence cannot be overstated. Contesting the ball at the breakdown legally is near impossible if you’re constantly having to get back onside before doing so. As a result the attacking team can dictate the speed and direction of their attack, and often do so against a depleted defensive line.
The Bulls’ failure to halt the Stormers’ determined carriers can be directly linked to the comfortable margin of victory. The build up to Peter Grant’s second penalty featured a Jaque Fourie linebreak and subsequent pick and drives that forced the Bulls to contest the ball illegally. Later Grant carried across the line despite the attention of two defenders. Again the Bulls infringed and the Stormers’ flyhalf duly punished them. In the 53rd minute Fourie again punched up, and more ill-discipline at ruck time cost the hosts three more points.
It wasn’t surprising that their most obvious deficiency would be terminal to their cause. The score that sealed the match was birthed from Juan de Jongh, hardly a behemoth by current standards, ripping the ball in a tackle and setting the move in motion that culminated in Bryan Habana’s try.
Those defensive shortcomings cost the Bulls 14 points, and that total could have been greater had Grant sunk other penalties from ruck infringements. Ominously, their next five opponents – the Lions (home), Hurricanes, Crusaders, Reds and Force (all away) – have all thrived when they’ve been allowed to generate attacking momentum by dominating the tackle fight. Significant improvements are needed, and the Bulls’ senior Springboks have to set the standard.
But their troubles run deeper than that, and extend to their attacking game. At the heart of this is the inability of their primary strike runners to impose themselves physically in contact. For the Bulls, more than any team in the tournament, winning the tackle fight is fundamental to their success.
Pierre Spies was largely anonymous in a match where his team desperately needed him to shine. It is criminal that a player with a physical constitution and the athleticism and speed unmatched by any No. 8 in the world doesn’t contribute significantly in a contest of this magnitude. His only telling run came in the 60th minute, where he advanced well beyond the gain line. Bulls’ coaches must be held partly accountable for not developing strategies which create situations that offer Spies more time and space to exploit.
Bakkies Botha was comprehensively outplayed by Super Rugby rookie Rynhardt Elstadt, the enforcer possessing the attacking threat of a poodle. Botha has struggled for form for some time, but his declining prowess was in full evidence at Loftus. Gurthrö Steenkamp, Dewald Potgieter and Wynand Olivier, all failed to replicate the collision dominance that has been so crucial to the Bulls’ success in recent years.
Their only try of the match was a homecoming gift from Habana, and, as has been the case for all but 40 minutes against the Lions, they never seriously tested their opponents’ defence for sustained periods. With the quality they have at their disposal, teams shouldn’t be winning at Loftus as comfortably as the Highlanders and Stormers did.
They’ll believe they have the capacity to rebound. On the evidence of what I’ve seen I believe they’re a team in decline.
21 Comments
21 Mar 2011, 08:45 am
stormers dominated beakdowns….refused to back off….and we all know what happens when a Bully gets a right hook back on the nose!
21 Mar 2011, 08:45 am
whoopass dragons
21 Mar 2011, 08:50 am
i reckon Lions could make it a bulls hat trick at home….of losses that is !
21 Mar 2011, 09:11 am
@grant10(grant10)-3: not so convinced, Lions played super kak rugby and do not have the pack to bully the bully boys. Also the chances of the bullies losing 3 at home is unlikely.
21 Mar 2011, 09:42 am
Good wrap of the turn of events at the Bull Ring, Ryan. Don’t think Ludeke can change the game plan mid season. All they can do is up their accuracy (ruck and tackle points and their trusted kicking game).
Only hope that the Bulls influence in the Springboks squad is muted.
21 Mar 2011, 10:21 am
Over the hill. Hard men go soft once they’re past it.
21 Mar 2011, 10:45 am
@Starvekos(Dtaila)-5:
We can only hope! Lots of talent available to replace the hasbeens.
21 Mar 2011, 11:53 am
I believe the whole problem with the bulls is their tackling method,I am not sure if anyone has noticed but when they tackle they seem to tackle to delay rather than to stop their opponent.
This then leads to the player who is being tackled being able to get the bull away or stagger on for 2 or 3 more metres,I shudder to think what SBW is going to do.
There next problem is their lack of creativity and complete impotence in attack,pretorious and co are just horrible to watch and have absolutely no vision.
Dark days indeed at Loftus.
21 Mar 2011, 11:54 am
@TheTackler(TheTackler)-6:
How would you know ? Pray tell.
21 Mar 2011, 12:12 pm
Poorly balanced loose-forward trio, ineffective front-row with Kruger and particularly Ralepelle pathetic in the tight-loose… Stormer’s like the Landers simply rampaged over them…
Very good win for Stormer’s fans… on second viewing it was a lot closer… great try started at 10 to Basson at pace to make up for him losing the foot race against Habs for his… 3 uncharacteristic misses at the poles by Steyn…
Jacque Fourie’s line-break, handling and tackle stats against the Bulls suggesting he’s close to being back to his best…
21 Mar 2011, 12:28 pm
@Starvekos(Dtaila)-5:
Yup
Kirchner
Olivier
Steyn
FdP
Spies
Potgieter
Matfield
Botha
Steenkamp
9/15 and they are all well past it, I wouldn’t hesitate chopping the entire lot.
21 Mar 2011, 12:40 pm
watched patches of the game.
bulls look decent when they get some width to their wingers.
problem is that they are getting so little fast and clean ruck ball, obviously.
front 5 isn’t firing and the backrow’s size is then becoming an issue as bigger looseforwards are dominating them.
serious shake up time….probably will only happen next week after they lose another at loftus, which I think is going to happen.
chill to the bench, Botha to start.
bakkies gone, flip to start.
Matfield from the bench, Roussow to start.
Spies to vodacom cup.
Juandre Kruger in at 7, Potgieter to 8.
Kuun to vodacom cup, Van Velze or Okkie Kruger or even Stander onto the bench for superrugby.
Jaco Pretorius to Vodacom cup
Watermeyer in at 12 Olivier to13. Or possibly olivier staying at 12 with young Hougaard in at 13. Bulls need some of his attitude at the minute.
Dippenaar even had a pretty good game for the vodacom side in a losing cause.
the bulls look abysmal at the minute as they always have done when they can’t get decent frontfoot ball.
I see their woes going hand in hand with the unions poor vodacom cup peformances. Sending some out of form superrugby performers back to vodacom cup could well be the tonic needed to get the union back on track.
bulls need to start using their weapons…who are sitting out on the wings. Front five need to produce so the ball can get some width which then brings their lighter and mobil 6 and 8 (stegman,potgieter to my mind) into the game.
21 Mar 2011, 14:50 pm
actually, having just watched the full game again….the bulls aren’t to far away.
just need more accuracy at the breakdown.
morne having his worst kicking % in years, 13-5 penalty count? handling errors?
bulls will be back shortly
21 Mar 2011, 14:55 pm
Bulls got out of jail twice this year already before losing to the highlanders. The warning signs were there for all to see but all the scribes could talk about was how poor the stormers looked and how they can’t score tries…. Even owen last night was on about it. People forget that it’s points not tries that win matches. Tries are just one of the ways to score points.
Problem is that the bulls have not been able to score enough points this year.not sure how this all came about but it’s not good for sa rugby in a world cup year
21 Mar 2011, 15:13 pm
Anyone seeped in the W.P. tradition wants exciting W.P. rugby before just barely winning.
Many have already stated that they do not so mind losing if the quality of the rugby exhibits a W.P.-like competitiveness.
There is honour in defeat too.
21 Mar 2011, 16:04 pm
There are too many has beens in the Bulls side. Start developing young talent and send the senior boys to the Vodacom Cup. This is one way of determining if they really want to improve or shift out. Too much baggage in this Bulls side – very similar to the Bok side. Mark my words – the same old same old will be chosen for the world cup because names win games after all – not form… hmmm
Too many promises made by PdV. Now he sits with a problem.
All the Bulls have done lately is moan at the ref. It is a shame really.
They have done SA proud – it is just a pity that in SA guys seem to go on for too long and are remembered for the wrong reasons…
21 Mar 2011, 16:10 pm
Saturday was the moment in time when ” the baton was passed from the old to the new.” ie…Bakkies handed on to Rayno Elstadt, Flo, Brok etc
Bakkies will play some good games still, but that aura is fading. Those youngsters gave him carrots.
21 Mar 2011, 16:16 pm
@Bill Reyts(Gumboots)-16:
Bill R., “too many promises” may well be a euphimistic way of putting it as I think the poor fellow may well have been compromised(day one – announcement), hijacked, held to ransom, blackmailed or more by any of a number of people including Saru(admiin. clearly sent him to Europe to beg Smit & Matfield), ‘senior players’(look at Dec 2010 contracts granted), unknown racists(dirty tape/s and his threat to give rugby back to “whites”).
It clearly now appears the dye is cast and he is enacting a commitment to old players(I said it in May 2008 already) and he just wants to go to the WC to possibly save some face and get out of rugby for good.
21 Mar 2011, 16:18 pm
@ET.(ET.)-18:
Yeah buddy I tend to agree. Entitlement comes to mind mate!
22 Mar 2011, 10:39 am
Never mind the collisions, which are a problem, what about your set pieces? You have to win your own lineout if you have the world’s “best” lineout jumper in your team, and you also have to win your scrums. And here, I believe, you do not have to look far for the biggest culprit in the Bulls team on Saturday.
1. Who conceded the largest number of penalties at the breakdown?
2. Whose throw-ins at the line-out turned Matfield into a non-contender?
3. Who conceded 3 heels against the head?
Yep. Chilliboy. Get rid of him PRONTO, Frans Ludeke, and you’ve solved 60% of your team’s problems (except of course then you need another couple of quota passengers.)
22 Mar 2011, 10:52 am
I dont agree with most of the analysis of the Bulls current woes. The current malais actually reminds me of ’98, when the Bulls finished 10th.
The body language, particularly that of Fourie du Preez, seems to me to be a mirror of that year.
I dont believe that players like Matfield, Botha or du Preez have lost any of their ability. Rather, it looks like, once again, the Bulls “brains” trust has not been quick enough to adapt to the changing interpretation of the laws, and so the different flow of the game.
This is what happened in ’98 when the Bulls totally failed to adapt to the ELV’s, it wasn’t the players going bad, as they proved in ’99 and probably will again. The coaching is off. They need to change the game plan, Is Ludeke up to the task?
I am not a Bulls supporter, however, there is no denying that the Bulls have played fantastic rugby in the last two seasons – and the players (with the odd exception) have the ability to do the same again, just not with this game plan.
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