Pretoria – Despite losing 30-13 to the Stormers and with it their nine-match winning streak, the Bulls are still alive in this year’s Super Rugby competition and preparing for a home semi-final in a fortnight’s time.
The Bulls can consider themselves fortunate that they did not fall out of the top two spots on the log and will have the Western Force to thank as well for beating the Brumbies 21-15, thus keeping former Springbok coach Jake White’s team in third place.
The Bulls will have a week off to recuperate from their surprising yet comprehensive thrashing by the Stormers, but it will be a week spent mending the wounded and finding ways to solve inefficiencies so glaringly exposed by their hosts at Newlands.
The sad reality is that the Bulls have been found wanting on consecutive weekends and while lucky to escape with a slender win against the Sharks two weeks ago, their luck ran out on Saturday.
Even though the Bulls have never lost a Super Rugby semi-final at Loftus Versfeld, they will be concerned at how easily they were dominated at the set-pieces and in the collisions in their last two matches.
Home ground advantage at Loftus Versfeld played a pivotal role in the Bulls winning the 2007, 2009 and 2010 Super Rugby titles, but with the possibility of playing the Brumbies, the Crusaders or the Reds in the semi-finals, the Bulls will need to be at their best in all areas of the game to proceed to the final.
As matters stand, the Bulls are likely to play the Brumbies if the Canberra side beat the Cheetahs in their play-off next weekend.
But if the Cheetahs win, the men from Bloemfontein will travel to Hamilton to face the defending champions, the Chiefs, while the Bulls will be left to battle it out against the winners of the match between the Crusaders and the Reds.
The Bulls might not be too bothered about who they play in the semi-finals, and they will also take comfort from the fact that if it is the Crusaders they play then the sentiment of history might play a heavy role in the outcome of the game.
The Crusaders have never beaten the Bulls in a Super Rugby semi-final on South African soil, with two of the finals having been played at Loftus Versfeld and the last at the Orlando Stadium in Soweto.
As quickly as the Bulls will have to put the defeat by the Stormers behind them, they will need to take heed of their shortcomings if they hope to go on and win the competition.
“It’s really a new competition in many senses and we simply must put this (defeat) behind us,” said Bulls coach Frans Ludeke.
“We had our opportunities, but the Stormers were better than us on the day. The Stormers were a very determined side but at least we kept on going.
“Our set-piece certainly wasn’t good enough but we know what we have to work on for the semi-final.”
Bulls captain Dewald Potgieter concurred and emphasised the Bulls needed to use the week off wisely to work on the areas of their game that could easily be their undoing in the play-offs.
“We had a great season with nine wins in a row, but we were given a reminder that we can lose focus,” he said.
“We cannot play like this, more so if it is a knockout match like a play-off. It is more important what we take out of this match and we now know that the line-out is one area we’ll need to work on before the play-offs.”
With the South African conference trophy safely tucked away at Loftus, the Bulls will now focus all their energy on the real trophy.
With Springboks Francois Hougaard and Jan Serfontein expected to return from injury before the semifinal, the Bulls will have no one to blame besides themselves if they don’t make the final.
“It was not a good feeling when we walked off the field. Obviously, a lot has gone into winning the South African conference trophy but we saw that we still needed to respond when we’re trailing in a match,” said Potgieter. – Pretoria News