Reading trough all the web sites, News blogs and Sports Blogs, I started to feel uncomfortable. I am not used to the “we all stand behind the Bulls” as well as “we support the Bulls”, it is making me uneasy.Where are you Saint, we need someone to chop us down to size a bit.
The words of the song “Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble”, by Mac Davis, started ringing in my ears.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoRPohOA8WI&feature=related[/youtube]
(I thought this might fit in well here, seeing as it is usually me and a lot of muppits here)
Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble
when you’re perfect in every way.
I can’t wait to look in the mirror
cause I get better loking each day.
To know me is to love me
I must be a hell of a man.
Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble
but I’m doing the best that I can.
But let a biased Bull supporter tell you where I feel , where the Bulls are at present.
The stats are all well known, we have now won 6 out of 6, we failed to get 2 bonus points only from a perfect 30 available. Morné Steyn is leading the top points scorer table with 124 points. We have 3 players in the top 10 try scorers. So I’m doing the best that I can, I wont bring out more perfect stats.
I will now deal with a few things I read in the press.
SA Rugby says:
The Bulls dominated the set-pieces, built the phases and the overwhelming pressure told when Pierre Spies muscled his way over in the 10th minute.
However the expected procession did not materialise as the Bulls, having perhaps been lulled into complacency, squandered scoring chances and made sloppy errors that allowed the Force to flick the ball around, take it wide, and create the kind of unstructured play their high-flying visitors would have wanted to avoid.
My take on this is that we are wandering around in fairyland, thinking we are invincible. It was nice to score an average of 6 tries per match in the first 3 games but since our bye-week we were easy to read and are so predictable. The referees have slowed down on penalizing the “daylight offenses” and all of a sudden the run-like-hell-with-everything was easy to read.
What we need to do is to vary it, play with the head. The Bulls tend to make the game too fast. Vary the speed of play. Do not wait for halftime, do it during a move. Yes we can and should be more lethal, we have the experience and the right players.
Rugby 365 says:
Bizarrely the Bulls could not convert all their possession inside the 22 into points and spurned opportunities as there were too many handling errors and turnovers close to the tryline and were evidently becoming more and more frustrated.
I feel this could easily be rectified, the speed of play is getting out of control. Like I said, too fast might not be better. More accuracy is needed, more patience and more structure.
Matfield being incensed by referee Pearce’s decision not to penalise the Force for a seemingly illegal steal right under their own posts.
Both Matfield and Fourie du Preez must get their relationship with the referees right. John Smit is in a constant bickering with the referees, the once clever Springbok Captain is querying too many decisions. Once you start doing that referees get fed up during game time and you lose that special respect or consideration from a referee. Rather let some go and do not argue about 50/50 calls.
Kick your penalties
The South Africans exuded early confidence when they shunned two kickable penalties in the first five minutes in an effort to score a try.
Morné Steyn is one of the Bulls’ most dangerous weapons. We must keep him “hot” and firing on all cylinders all the time. Do not make him wait for decisions from the Captain, he must get us on the score board, get us rolling. I get the feeling that he is not sure what is next as happened with the last kick of the game, everything was kicked to the corner at that stage and we needed one more try for the bonus point. He was making ready to go for the corner. Then Matfield instructed him to go for the posts. It was a successful kick this time but the whole idea is to keep him in the groove.
At the moment the Bulls strongest weapon is the rolling maul, the use thereof is very impressive.
Our line-outs was always a strength, we still use it correctly.
We have arguably the World’s best scrumhalf in Fourie du Preez but he is not playing at his best. If Du Preez could stop coaching the referee and play the ball faster and more accurately we would improve by another 15%.
Wynand Olivier is red hot but is becoming too predictable….. or is it the game plan?
What we need to do now is manage proper rest for our senior and star players.
Anyway, after all this talk we are still in a brilliant position right now. I cannot see this team imploding. Another win or two in the next games will bring our biggest enemy to the fore….. complacency.
Complacency
I feel we have two of the best people in our camp to deal with possible complacency, Heynecke Meyer and Frans Ludeke and with a captian like Victor Matfield it will continue to be “Hard to be humble” as a supporter. I will try my best.
JL1: Hy en Shark het glo dinge vertel hier? Sal later kom kyk!
Puma
Sharks are coming right because Johan Muller has left and Botes seem to make a difference
Sharks are going to do many SA teams a favour
JL1: Ek’s goed he? Julle dink ek is ‘n Boer? Ek sal julle leer! 🙂
Cheers! Till later!
25 – Johan, I am very well mate and you? Ja I noticed but one of them really has said far, far too much about my team and some players in it. Just told him what I thought on Sharksworld and suppose he never liked it much. Yip, we spoke about him here a bit but nothing new, just what he has being going on about for about a year……. YAWN!!! hahaha. See his buddy thinks I mentioned him too. Never did it was someone else. I wont mention his name. They like to dish it out but not get it back.
Rather will leave it.
Your Bulls looking good mate. They should beat Blues this weekend. Just go for the win first and I think they will get it, rather than trying for the bonus which puts pressure on them straight up.
Johan Fourie
Bhwaahahah
😆
Daai Kanadese lug is besig om jou aan te tas
32 – JL1, Botes was superb on Saturday. Great in defence. We needed that. Also Hargreaves better than Muller for sure.
Also with Stefan on the wing and not at FB we are doing so much better with young Lambie there. He is a gem of a player. Stefan kicked too much of our ball away.
Yip, if we can beat Reds and Blues here that would help Stormers and Bulls for sure. Hope we can help by beating them.
Sharks needed some changes
Adi out has also made a difference
28 – Johan, Good look forward to your posts here. This is a great blog buddy. I enjoy it. Hate the arguments and fights that go on voldy…hehehe. Normally by the same few. Rather be here.
Hallo Johan , jis ou ek het spesifiek soontoe gegaan om n paar ordentlike mense te red. Jy sal mal word daar, hier is genoeg goeie gesprek hier om jou lekker op hoogte te hou van alles in die sport wereld. Jy moet voorstelle maak wat ons kan doen om nog te verbeter.
38 – JL1, Yes of course with Adi out it made a difference. We had Waylon there and he ways over a 100kg. Our defence was far better. Maybe missed a bit of attack with Adi but not much. We needed the bigger players on Saturday for defence against the Canes. Botes was superb and Swannie played a lot better too.
John at Loosehead made our scrum very good.
Thanks you guys. I’m done there! Do you guys have a group on superbru? Must go, need to take my laaitjie outside to play.
41 – ways – weighs.
42 – Johan, Yes we do. Let me get the code quick for you. Will go look it up.
Julle moet bietjie op die Rugby talk weekend team thread jul wyshede gaan toets , ons nooi alle bloggers hier om span te kies. Go try, gaan voel hoe dit is om keurder te wees
Puma no do not give him the code, he has done well and will push me down further
46 – JL1…..hehehe. Sorry mate, I am doing terrible too. Blues let me down this weekend. Felt for them actually they should have won. Messed up there with that run away try.
Johan the RT bru code is waxymeld
Super, is that the right code for our RT bru pool waxymeld
Good night all. Early night for me.
14 – Bluebeard, Agree this will be far tougher this weekend for the Sharks than last weekend. I somehow think the Reds are a better team too than the Canes. They are here already our boys had to fly all the way from NZ. That is a tough flight for sure.
Still think flying east is worst. I have never been to NZ but a few times to Oz and going east always affects me more. Coming home I seem to get over the jet lag quicker.
Did you see we have a new leader there , Loosehead was dethroned by another new young Lion, David (Biscuit)
49 – Bluebeard. Read your support for Sharky and myself on the other thread. Thanks mate. Sometimes enough is enough and it gets annoying when the keep on at us. So now we give it back they don’t like it much.
Okay me too out of here now. Catch up tomorrow.
48
Just went there to check you spelling. 😆
You have it right
51 – Super, NO……..hahahaha. Loosehead not going to like it. Who did he go against?…hehe Bet it was the Sharks. Told everyone they going to see their butts going against the Sharks…..hahaha. Was only joking but it happened with some 😆
53 – Super 😆 I had too go and look now as well..hehehe.
51 – Super, Does Biscuit blog here? Have seen him on voldy. Well think I have. Hardly see him here.
No this guy joined RT yesterday, a new blogger and a new entrant to Superbru. Must have done bloody good were he came from. You lose all you bonus points and still he ousted Loosehead.
53 – Super, Just e-mail Johan the code for our superbru, he may not see my post that I left the code on.
57 – Super, I have seen him on voldy. Well think I have seen him there. Maybe on Sharkworld. Not sure now.
Going quick to check our S14 bru.
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