Losing their first game of the season and doing so at home has not gone down well with the Bulls.
Not much was said during the course of the week in the build-up to tonight’s clash against the Hurricanes at Loftus Versfeld, but in the few words spoken, the Bulls promised big things.
They have promised a much improved performance to what they dished out in last weekend’s defeat at the hands of the Stormers and they have been clear about their intention to be more than just competitive in this year’s competition.
“We will improve this weekend, no doubt about it. It wasn’t good enough last weekend and losing at home is not something you want to do if we want to be competitive in the competition,” Frans Ludeke said.
The improvement will certainly need to start upfront with the forwards from the way in which they confront their demons in the scrums to regaining dominance in the line-outs and winning the armwrestle of the breakdown.
There is no doubting that the Bulls are capable and able to play the brand of rugby their hearts so desire but that expansive game goes out the window if there is no respect for the fundamentals.
The reality is that the Bulls were outplayed and outwitted in most facets of play last week and surprisingly didn’t seem to have the mongrel in them to seize the game when proceedings were finely balanced.
Bulls captain Pierre Spies believes all of that is in the past now and tonight Pretoria, the Hurricanes and the rest of the teams in the competition will see the real Bulls team and what it is that they are about.
Spies says that his team have the appetite to play the expansive game but they need to respect the ball a lot better than they did last week.
At the same time he is wary of the danger the Hurricanes will pose with ball in hand as they have proven to be a crafty and elusive side especially with their backs which are largely made up of All Blacks.
Furthermore, Spies has called for a more disciplined performance in how his team go about adhering to their game plan and says they will need to be clinical unlike last week.
“I think broken field play will always give us opportunity. I think it is going to be a bit more coming from the Hurricanes.
“We want to do the things we execute on the field well. We’ve got to take care of the ball, disciplined in our approach, be clinical as well. We made way too many mistakes against the Stormers and you can’t build pressure like that. Those are the things we are going to focus on this weekend,” said Spies.
The Bulls will need to be more assured in their approach and execution in the game if they are to get a favourable result.
But their work will be cut out for them as they face a Hurricanes side that has been boosted by the return of All Black centre Ma’a Nonu and also by their unlikely win against the Lions in Johannesburg last weekend.
The Hurricanes played a similar game to that of the Stormers last week.
They were resilient in defence in the face of unrelenting waves of attack and pressure from the Lions but they made good from the little scraps of possession they were able to get their hands on.
It is unlikely that they will veer off their modus operandi tonight and with the Bulls wounded in their kraal, the Hurricanes will want to absorb the initial rush of adrenalin before trying to outwit the Bulls. - The Star