Bulls were bullied in brutal contest
2 Apr 2012
MARK KEOHANE, in his weekly Business Day column, says the Super Rugby match at Newlands on Saturday evening was a great advertisement for South African rugby.
The Stormers and Bulls produced an electric contest, which was complemented by an electric atmosphere.
The Stormers were worthy winners and it would have been an injustice — on the night’s performance — had the Bulls even left the stadium with a share of the spoils, which looked the likely outcome with the teams at 17-17 after 77 minutes.
The Bulls were courageous in everything they did, but the cleverness in tactical approach did not match the bravery in the collisions and at the breakdown.
The Stormers bullied the Bulls in contact and the manner in which the final three points were fashioned — from a scrum penalty — was befitting the home team’s set-phase superiority. Young Stormers prop Steven Kitshoff, in particular, produced the effort of a veteran and emphasised his enormous potential.
Stormers coach Allister Coetzee and forwards coach Matthew Proudfoot got the selections right from numbers one to eight and each one of the starting pack contributed to a night worth remembering if you just happened to be at Loftus on that awful afternoon some years back when the Bulls scored 75 points against the Stormers.
The Cape Town franchise have come a long way since their lowest point in Super Rugby history and the Bulls have maintained a consistency that makes them SA’s premier provincial and regional side.
The Stormers certainly are no longer the powder-puff brigade and no one can accuse them of being show ponies, although their attack certainly could do with a show pony or two. I had the Bulls to win by 10 because I backed their pack to do enough to give their impressive backs enough ammunition with which to fire.
I got it wrong and the Stormers got it very right because in this most brutal of contests the home team always held an advantage in every collision. Games of this nature are decided by who has an edge in every tackle or every attempt to break the tackle, and I was surprised at how decisively the Stormers dealt with the Bulls forwards-inspired attack.
The Bulls backs were not a factor because the forwards never built momentum and simply did not have any individual or collective ascendancy in determining gainline advantage.
Given the superiority in the contact and the quality of ball given to the backs, the Stormers still struggled to convince on attack and the backs, as a unit, were as impotent as the forwards were potent.
Ironically — and I use the word because he is seen as the glue that keeps the Stormers backs together — captain Jean de Villiers’s structured style is a restriction to the Stormers attack when once he was a revelation in all things creative.
De Villiers shoulders so much defensive responsibility that the natural attacking instincts of his game have suffered.
The Bulls — and most definitely former Stormer Johann Sadie — will learn from the experience at Newlands and they left with a valuable bonus point, while the Stormers got four quality league points.
In a sense it was a win-win for the South African challenge in the competition.
Our two best teams each got something for their efforts, but the Stormers maximised the advantage of playing at home.
Elsewhere, the Cheetahs produced the most inspired performance in their Super Rugby history to turn a 32-11 deficit after 25 minutes into a 47-38 win against the Hurricanes in Wellington, and complete their most successful Super Rugby overseas adventure.
The victory was their second in four tour matches and with a bit of good fortune the Cheetahs could well have won all four matches overseas. They lost to the Brumbies in the last minute and had the chance to beat the Crusaders. It has been a brilliant month for the boys from Bloem, more so because they left SA after taking 50 points from the Bulls in Bloemfontein.
The Cheetahs’ win was also another reminder that to be successful in Super Rugby you need a pack with grunt, as much as you need gifted game breakers. The Canes were feeble up front and the Cheetahs were colossal in the last hour of the match. It proved to be the difference in a fantastic match.
The Sharks continue to battle with the search for an imposing back five in their pack but they did well to beat a confident, if limited, Brumbies outfit in Canberra.
The Lions were again the disappointment of the weekend — and each week shows that they are not good enough. Coach John Mitchell has given them belief and structure and they are the team who best use the width of the park in attack, but they don’t possess the class of player to make all these ingredients a winning recipe.
284 Comments
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2 Apr 2012, 21:31 pm
@victoriabok(victoriabok)-249: …is that an excuse?
2 Apr 2012, 21:33 pm
@wp_boytjie(wp_boytjie)-248:
Sat next to a Bulls supporter and his wife (dressed in pink).
They were very quite through out the game. But after the try in the corner and Steyn’s successful conversion, this oke went crazy.
“Die Bulle, My Bulle, ek het julle gese ons gaan hulle opfok”
Loved the look on his face after Grant’s kick……
2 Apr 2012, 21:36 pm
@wooden spoon(wooden spoon)-244:
fair enough , but we have never finished in the bottom 2.
2 Apr 2012, 21:37 pm
@Jeraldjay(Jeraldjay)-252: hahaha, “Die Bulle, My Bulle,” A classic!!!!!!!!
This bulls team could not beat a Blues team and remind me where are the Blues on the log
2 Apr 2012, 21:39 pm
@Jeraldjay(Jeraldjay)-252:
priceless!!
In 2009 i hear a Bulls supporter behind me as Kirchner takes a up n under and he shouts “lekka Zane-a” .
30 minutes later Bulls are swinging the ball down the line and it gets to Kirchner and he drops it. I hear a Province fan next to me shout “lekka Zane-a”.
Classic
2 Apr 2012, 21:42 pm
“Liefling, kan jy maar nooit vergeet en vergewe?”
2 Apr 2012, 21:44 pm
@JL1(JL1)-254:
I find it quite odd that the Blues and Crusaders are under performing this season. But they shouldn’t be written off.
The season is still in its infancy and with the incoming tours interrupting proceedings, I feel some teams are still holding their cards close to their chests.
Time will tell.
2 Apr 2012, 21:45 pm
@wooden spoon(wooden spoon)-242: eina!
2 Apr 2012, 21:46 pm
Busy watching the Manu game while remembering what City did to them earlier in the season. How did they come back to lead the league? How did the City supporters react after the old trafford derby? It just shows you how champions always find a way to come out on top and chokers always find a way to implode. Maybe some supporters on this site must remember which team they are supporting. The chokers or the champions?
2 Apr 2012, 21:47 pm
@Jeraldjay(Jeraldjay)-257: Yes, very true, but you cannot be too far off the pace as you will not make up for lost ground
At this stage lying ing the top 7 and having rotated you squad will be good. I reckon losing flyhalves, props, locks and influential 14s will be costly blows to many a team
2 Apr 2012, 22:00 pm
@JL1(JL1)-260:
This competition is all about the depth of your squad and whether the inexperienced players can step up to the plate.
Cant wait to see how Schalk fits into the current Stormers setup when his fit.
Anyway, 2nd half of Man United vs Blackburn is about to start.
Cheers.
2 Apr 2012, 22:06 pm
@JL1(JL1)-251:
Yes, once you’ve lost talent and you’ve got no money to replace it with you’re screwed
If we didn’t have the money to contract new players, after a lot of senior players left at the end of last season, and we played you with Vodacom and U/20 players, could you imagine what would have happened on Saturday?
2 Apr 2012, 22:06 pm
I think the English series and Meyer’s selections will have a huge impact on this year’s outcome. If he selects the entire Bulls teams for example it will be a 24 week long tournament. I will be pretty happy if Greyling, Ralepele, Kruger, Flip and Juandre can get a 3 week break after 15 rounds.
2 Apr 2012, 22:10 pm
Yussus… Got to love the windgat brokeback broadcasting…
Going to be heaven on this site when the Stormpoese fall on their collective dutpipes on tour…
And its going to happen…
0 from 4 will be schweet thank you very much….
2 Apr 2012, 22:13 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-264: Don’t worry Sharks are still 3rd best in SA
2 Apr 2012, 22:16 pm
An appropriate Stormerpussy team:
1. Brokeback Floyd
2. Fisted Floyd
3. Bay of Pigs Floyd
4. Farked Floyd
5. Gangbanged Floyd
6. Bukakked Floyd
7. *****’d Floyd
8. Bottom Floyd
9. Tranny Floyd
10. Crossdressed Floyd
11. Pink Floyd
12. Donkey drilled Floyd
13. Deep throat Floyd
14. Rimmed Floyd
15. Doggy Floyd…
Just right… Best Stormer team ever….
2 Apr 2012, 22:18 pm
@JL1(JL1)-265: Not for long… After the Stormpussys see their arseholes on tour its going to be very different…
2 Apr 2012, 22:28 pm
Oh wouldn’t it be nice to get on with me neighbours
But they make it very clear
They’ve got no room for ragers
They stop me from groovin’, they bang on me wall
They doing me crust in, it’s no good at all – ah
There’s no one to hear me, there’s nothing to say
And no one can stop me from feeling this way – yeah
2 Apr 2012, 22:36 pm
Stormers sure get the willies up Herr Gonads shorts
poor dearie there is nothing worse in the world to unsettle the poor chap’s metabolism as a Stormers win over the exalted enemy
Bullsharks are simply despicably unhappy at the proposition that Stormers are thus far undefeated.. they simply cannot wait.. and sit in their tail spinning turmoil with baited breath for the ultimate high to their unfulfilled lives.. the day the Stormers lose a game…
which might very well be the very next encounter for Stormpies in Dunedin…. and then again it just as might not … wouldn’t that be a disdainfully bewildering beastly shame..?
2 Apr 2012, 22:58 pm
@ashampoopaloo(joel1yahoo)-269: Ag, msunu wakho kehla…. uyalandela isitabani…
2 Apr 2012, 23:15 pm
Only the Lions and Rebels, in 14th and 15th place, have scored fewer tries than the Stormers.
Wow.
This must be worrying to some, no?
2 Apr 2012, 23:16 pm
Zero bonus points.
The only team not to have one.
2 Apr 2012, 23:32 pm
rather concern yourselves with your own lucky packet team who were systematically fck’d up by some no name JW student converts only to get lucky.. same way as bully brekers were .. with breakaway tries against the run of play…
Sharkievarkies got a long way to go even to be classified as competitive vs Stormers.. and Bully brekers who thought their farts smelled like pienk pantoffels found out that when it comes down to who are the biggest bruisers in SA rugby.. Bully brekers are not…
So crow all you like about your lucky packet win against the Jakey Fakey Canberra universities team through some shoddy finishing by the students…
Was it not you.. and you … and you… and you … who said only a few measly weeks ago that Sharkievarkies will automatically top the SA log… the SA conference is only between Sharkievarkies and Bully brekers according your esteemed estimation.. No .. ?
3 Apr 2012, 00:15 am
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-264:
I don’t get this hatred of a local Saffa team just cause you from a different city??
What is it? Jelousy? or you just being a faaking doos?
3 Apr 2012, 00:16 am
@wooden spoon(wooden spoon)-271:
aaahh f uk, look at the scoreboard……………….
3 Apr 2012, 00:17 am
@wooden spoon(wooden spoon)-272:
But top of the table…….neh?
Idiot!
3 Apr 2012, 00:56 am
Looking forward to the Stormers v Highlanders game this weekend, going to be a good one. Could go either way when you have two teams playing with confidence but home ground advantage may sway it Highlanders way.
3 Apr 2012, 04:43 am
@Te Rangatira(Te Rangatira)-277: Highlanders just like everyone else up until now will get beaten up badly up front and get nowhere.
3 Apr 2012, 04:52 am
Come now Spooner, we expect better from you. For every one of your losing bonus points we have 4 for a win. I think we outh know which is better.
3 Apr 2012, 06:07 am
@HongKongSlong(HongKongSlong)-278:
Will have to wait and see but me thinks Stormers wont know whats hit them come Saturday night, Highlanders by 20
3 Apr 2012, 07:20 am
@Te Rangatira(Te Rangatira)-277: aaron smith vs dewalt duvenhage hehehehe…. it should be a humdinger… i see the Landers have sent an SOS to mike delany.
3 Apr 2012, 11:40 am
@wooden spoon(wooden spoon)-242:
You are being very embraboer.
Don’t forget the Super 10 beforehand in your “analysis”.
The top three SA provinces from the previous year’s Currie Cup participated.
So in 1993 this was Natal, Transvaal and Northern Transvaal.
In 1994 this was Transvaal, Natal and Eastern Province.
In 1995 it was Transvaal, Western Province and Free State.
(I.e. Natal [b] DID NOT QUALIFY! [/b] in 1995 as you put it)
The Stormers franchise was only created in 1998. In 1996 we still competed as Western Province – and yes, we did miss out on Super Rugby participation in 1997 due to the 1996 Currie Cup results (Western Province had finished third on the B Log and lost in the quarter-finals to a very strong Gauteng Lions, which Natal ended up beating in the 1996 Currie Cup final).
However, the “Stormers” have never missed out on a Super Rugby season. The Stormers were only created in 1998.
3 Apr 2012, 11:43 am
@wooden spoon(wooden spoon)-272:
And also the only team that is still unbeaten.
Putthatinyourfockinpipeandsmokeit.
3 Apr 2012, 11:51 am
@WP Till I Die(WP-Forever)-282:
Allow me to explain further.
You have to compare the Super 10 (1993 to 1995) and Super 12 (up to 1998) for your comment to hold water that the “Stormers” did not qualify.
Up until 1998 we did not follow the New Zealand franchise system. In the Super 10 the top three provinces from the previous year’s Currie Cup qualified. In the Super 12 in 1996 and 1997 the top four provinces from the previous year’s Currie Cup qualified.
So if you want to be accurate (which as an alleged barrister I’m hoping you will) you should actually state that:
1) The Natal Sharks DID NOT QUALIFY in 1995;
2) Northern Transvaal DID NOT QUALIFY in 1994 and 1995;
3) Western Province DID NOT QUALIFY in 1997.
Putthatinyourfockinpipeandsmokeit.
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