This is one to read. Written by JJ Harmse,  take the good, take the bad its up to you. Put it in your pipe and smoke it.

News24

There are lies, old wives’ tales … and then there are statistics.

The statistics tell you that the Bulls produced one of their best Super 14 performances to date when they beat the Western Force in Perth last weekend.

One of their assistant coaches, Johann van Graan, said that the ball had been in play for 38 minutes and 21 seconds.

“That shows how high the quality of the rugby was. We carried the ball 118 times and they carried it 98 times. Both teams were successful with just over 90% of their tackles. That gives you an idea of how hard both teams had to work for their points,” Van Graan told Sport24 from Auckland.

“We created a lot of opportunities, but did not finish as well as we could have. That is definitely something we’ll focus on this week. We were very direct with our attacks and it worked. Three tries against zero on tour is not to be scoffed at,” Van Graan added.

The Bulls’ forwards coach said that it gave them hope for the weekend’s game against the Blues, even though the Bulls can only start preparing on Tuesday.

(vi) Western Force vs Bulls

Penalties conceded: 24

Western Force: 14
Bulls: 10

Reasons for the penalties:

Western Force:
Tackle: 8 (Sharpe* 2, Sharpe & McCalman, McCalman, Hodgson 2, Stanford, Fairbrother*)
Offside: 5 (O’Connor, Cross 2, Hodgson, Hill)
Discipline: 1 (Cummins – dangerous tackle)

Bulls:
Tackle: 5 (Hougaard*, Rossouw, Stegmann*, Roux, Wannenburg)
Offside: 3 (Steenkamp*, Flip van der Merwe, Wannenburg)
Scrums: 1 (Steenkamp)
Discipline: 1 (Steyn – high tackle)

The Bulls missed three penalty kicks at goal.

Free kicks conceded

Western Force: 0
Bulls: 0

Line-outs

Western Force: 5 (1 quick)
Bulls: 12 (1 lost, 1 quick)

Scrums

Western Force: 8 (1 reset, 1 collapse, 1 lost)
Bulls: 9 (3 resets, 2 collapses)

Drop-outs

Western Force: 4
Bulls: 0

Stoppages: 68

Some Match Totals

Stoppages per match

Western Force vs Brumbies: 73
Sharks vs Chiefs: 88
Crusaders vs Highlanders: 65
Cheetahs vs Bulls: 60
Blues vs Hurricanes: 69
Lions vs Stormers: 77
Reds vs Waratahs: 74

Bulls vs Brumbies: 55
Highlanders vs Blues: 77
Lions vs Chiefs: 74
Sharks vs Cheetahs: 76
Hurricanes vs Western Force: 68
Reds vs Crusaders: 62
Stormers vs Waratahs: 91

Stormers vs Brumbies: 81
Bulls vs Waratahs: 58
Reds vs Blues: 68
Western Force vs Chiefs: 73
Crusaders vs Sharks: 80
Cheetahs vs Highlanders: 69
Hurricanes vs Lions: 81

Brumbies vs Sharks: 78
Bulls vs Highlanders: 71
Crusaders vs Chiefs: 65
Reds vs Western Force: 84
Stormers vs Hurricanes: 67
Waratahs vs Lions: 71\

Blues vs Brumbies: 65
Bulls vs Hurricanes: 71
Crusaders vs Lions: 70
Highlanders vs Sharks: 69
Western Force vs Waratahs: 70
Stormers vs Cheetahs: 72

Highlanders vs Lions: 84
Brumbies vs Chiefs: 79
Cheetahs vs Reds: 80
Hurricanes vs Sharks: 66
Waratahs vs Blues: 65
Western Force vs Bulls: 68

Fewest stoppages: Bulls vs Brumbies – 55
Most stoppages: Stormers vs Waratahs – 91

The team arrived in two different planes from Perth, with the second group only arriving at the hotel at 05:00 New Zealand time.

“The Blues are very experienced and their entire front row consists of All Blacks that have played 100 or so Super Rugby games. They have one of the strongest scrums in the competition and in Jerome Kaino one of the best ball-carriers,” Van Graan warned.

Van Graan said that the Bulls would like to use their driving play as an attacking weapon again, even though they had mixed results with it against the Force.

“Yes, we had to adapt to another interpretation by the referee, but when we got it right one of our driving mauls led to Morné Steyn’s try.”

The Bulls were delighted at not conceding a try for the first time in this campaign against the Force, but realise the Blues will pose different questions in attack.

“They have a lot of gamebreakers and Rene Ranger will probably be their danger man. Last week’s good defence won’t help this week if we are not as committed as we were. But we also want to play our own game and know what works for us,” said Van Graan.

Bulls unchanged for Blues challenge

15 Zane Kirchner, 14 Gerhard van der Heever, 13 Jaco Pretorius, 12 Wynand Olivier, 11 Francois Hougaard, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 Fourie du Preez, 8 Pierre Spies, 7 Dewald Potgieter, 6 Deon Stegmann, 5 Victor Matfield (c), 4 Danie Rossouw, 3 Werner Kruger, 2 Gary Botha, 1 Gurthrö Steenkamp. Substitutes: 16 Bandise Maku, 17 Bees Roux, 18 Flip van der Merwe, 19 Derick Kuün/Jaco Engels, 20 Jacques-Louis Potgieter, 21 Jaco van der Westhuyzen, 22 Pedrie Wannenburg.