Frans Ludeke
As the well-worn idiom goes: ‘The tallest trees catch the most wind.’ In the case of Bulls coach Frans Ludeke, that has come in the form of harsh criticism.
While there was some critique over his ‘management’ of veteran Victor Matfield and numerous barbs over his backline choices, it was the selection of his loose forwards that attracted the most fiendish and frightful comments.
The Bulls were particularly vulnerable at the breakdowns, where the absence of a specialist openside flank – in the wake of injuries to Deon Stegmann and Dewald Potgieter – cost them dearly.
Ludeke persisted with Jono Ross, who by his own admission is more suitable on the blindside or at No 8.
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The Bulls mentor took it all in his stride, but admitted that in hindsight some selection decisions could have been different and that he may have been able to put together better combinations.
“There were a lot of opinions about openside flank,” he said of the route he took after injuries ruled out key players like Stegmann, Potgieter and Arno Botha.
“I took that on board,” Ludeke said in an interview in the build-up to the final match of the season, against the Rebels at Loftus Versfeld on Friday.
“Jono Ross has grown a lot,” he said, adding: “Wiaan Liebenberg, who is a specialist in that position, and Roelof Smit both spent time on the sidelines with injury. They are now fully fit again.”
While Ludeke was willing to take the criticism on board, he also felt that at times there were ‘small things and some basic errors’ that cost them.
“In some games, with the selections we made, we got good results.”
However, by his own admission, injuries often forced his hand and while, as a coach, he has to take responsibility, it was not always within in control.
“You can sometimes make better decisions, because you have to win – that is the bottom line,” Ludeke said.
“Yes, we did not always perform to our true potential this year, because it was within our grasp to reach the play-off’s.”
“But, then again, at times we only selected the best from what was at our disposal and injuries did make it more challenging for us.”
Ludeke hopes that one of the players who has been on the fringes and at times unavailable through injury, Roelof Smit, will solve part of his breakdown problem.
It is a solution he can, hopefully, take into the Currie Cup season that gets underway next month.
The Bulls lost the battle of the breakdowns in 2014…. and it’s all about the lack of balance in the selections of the loosies.
A loosie combo has to have 1 fetcher (with a strong upper torso and low centre of gravity – a true stealer of the ball who plays TOWARDS the ball), 1 classic blindsider (a devastating and deadly tackler and strong strike-runner) and a superb No 8 (A man with hands of gold who tackles well and runs well into space whilst linking well with the backline, whilst also playing towards the ball on the ground). Speed to the breakdowns is key and therefore at least 2 of your loosies need to be quick and not only quick but explosive and nimble towards the ball.
It is required in the modern game where there are upwards of 170 groundball or breakdown situations compared to maybe 17 Scrums and 17 Lineouts… in 1 game.
Control the breakdowns and you control the tempo of the game and is able to execute proper possession rugby much better… which in turns puts you in the right areas of the field to be able to attack the opposition goal area for points.
Lose the breakdowns and your side is immediately on the backfoot and scrambling on defence, which is not yet properly set.
The focus or lack of true focus on these groundball or breakdown situations, by the Bulls were simply wrong in in 2014, of that there is no doubt!
Standard practice should be to have a like-for-like replacement for every differing loosie position and not to try and convert or shift players to adapt to another specific loosie position, like was the experiment with Jono Ross in 2014. Ross is no openside flank and will never be a successful opensider by virtue of his build and the way he plays.
The other factor which severely cost and limited the Bulls in 2014 was poor handling skills and finishing skills with ball in hand, specially by all their forwards. The Bulls often put themselves in the best of possible field positions, just to then spill the ball or make forced and unforced errors, which turned ball over and sent them way back down field again. In other words the clinical finishing touches were severely lacking in 2014… and that needs to be addressed if they want to do anything positive going forward from here.
1 @ grootblousmile:
“The other factor which severely cost and limited the Bulls in 2014 was poor handling skills and finishing skills with ball in hand, specially by all their forwards”
Especially on tour, countless times they turned ball over 5m from the opposition try line.
2 @ nortierd:
Yes, it was and is very frustrating!
What really irritated me was the Matfield situation… Look it is great he made a comeback, he is playing as good as he ever has before if not more involved.
The “captaincy” was embarrassing at times especially when Flip was fit, while Flip was on the field he was still like a BEE partner to the “voorman” Matfield.
It really affected Flip as he was the form lock last year and regressed the quality of his rugby, because he is unsure about his own place.
Selection errors is one thing, but the Bulls conservative style has brought them lots of success and it will continue to, but the Matfield-show is hurting the Bulls.
4 @ MacroBull:
I wouldn’t be surprised if Spies negotiates a contract in Japan ( if they want him 😀 )
If he wasn’t injured the whole year it would have been interesting to see how he would have reacted to Matfield back on the park. We all know that there is only one captain if Matfield is fit and playing.
Where will Spies fit in? Will he be happy being relegated back to just a normal player and if Strauss is given the captaincy, will he accept that?
Imagine a Bulls team with Strauss, Matfield, Flip and Spies, too many chiefs, too little Indians
5 @ nortierd:
There will be a musical chairs of captaincy, I think Spies is the best captain of the lot, I want to say he say he would be lucky to make the team, but to be honest, Spies could have either played 6,7 or 8 in the last two games and the Bulls would have been a much improved team.
I am still waiting for the Strauss move, I am not biting yet.
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