The Vodacom Bulls took quite a beating on the weekend against a DHL Stormers side who boasted far fewer Springboks and seasoned players than the Bulls.

Nick Mallett talks about how bad the Bulls really were.

JJ Engelbrecht, cited for a dangerous tackle received an off-field Yellow Card – a stern warning not to repeat the type of incident.

Frans Ludeke, Vodacom Bulls coach portrayed his usual diplomatic self… or is that his usual dim-witted self as some would have us believe, when questioned on the Bulls lacklustre performance on the weekend.

The Bulls also released a fitness report today, which reads like a war-veterans hospital checklist, with 3 more injuries, ahead of the Hurricanes clash on Friday evening. The injuries, specially amongst frontrowers are worrying, very worrying seeing as the Bulls scrums have been degenerating at a rate of knots in 2015… well actually for a number of seasons now… and the Bulls Brains Trust, if one could call it that, seems to have no answers to shore up the Bulls scrumming woes.

Nick Mallett

Nick Mallett:

Former Springbok coach Nick Mallett has identified a few flaws in the Bulls armoury after their 29 / 17 Super Rugby loss to the Stormers at Loftus Versfeld at the weekend.

Mallett was speaking in the SuperSport studio after the opening round of Super Rugby on Saturday night.

“The Bulls have had problems in the scrum for 3 years, so you’ve got to ask yourself, where is their recruitment and why is a guy like Vincent Koch down at the Stormers? He was right on their doorstep and he did a great job as a tighthead prop, first at the Pumas and then with the Stormers,” said Mallett.

“There were too many individual errors. You can’t drop a ball like Visser did to let the Stormers back into the game and change the momentum of those first 15 minutes.

“And then finally, the scrumhalves, Van Zyl and Paige didn’t add too much value, while Hougaard spent the night on the wing. They needed someone to take a bit more control at No 9. So the Bulls have real problems.

“I would’ve thought the aggression and the intensity would’ve come from the Bulls, and it did for the first 10 minutes. But they seemed to be a team with no self-confidence, because as soon as Visser dropped that ball and the Stormers scored, it was almost as if the bubble burst and their confidence was broken.

“Their line speed was really slow and there weren’t many aggressive hits from the Bulls. The Stormers’ players were allowed to carry the ball over the advantage line. The Bulls were unable to get any turnovers, which meant the Stormers were able to hold onto possession for long periods of time. They had time on the ball, which I wasn’t expecting.”

The Bulls next tackle the Hurricanes at home this Friday (19:10 SA Time), while the Stormers host the Blues at Newlands on Saturday (17:05 SA Time).

JJ Engelbrecht

JJ Engelbrecht:

JJ Engelbrecht has been issued with a citing commissioner warning (CCW) for contravening Law 10.4 (e) dangerous tackling during a Super Rugby match at the weekend.

The incident occurred in the 26th minute of the match between the Bulls and Stormers played at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on 14 February 2015 when Engelbrecht made contact with Stormers’ No 9 Nic Groom.

In this case the referee for the match, Jaco Peyper, acted upon the incident by awarding a penalty. Upon further review of the match footage, the citing commissioner deemed a CCW was appropriate.

A CCW may be issued by the SANZAR citing commissioner for foul play incidents that are very close to, but in his opinion do not meet the Red Card threshold for citings.

A player who has received 3 Yellow Cards or 3 CCW (or any combination thereof) in the same Super Rugby competition shall be required to appear before the Duty Judicial Officer appointed for the match during which he last offended.

The duty judicial officer is to consider the circumstances in which each Yellow Card and / or CCW was imposed and determine whether any further penalty should be imposed on him by reason of his persistent foul play.

Frans Ludeke

Frans Ludeke:

Bulls coach Frans Ludeke has admitted that his team’s performance against the Stormers wasn’t good enough.

“We came back well in the second half, but we can’t afford to lose possession on our opponents’ goal-line. It’s definitely not how we wanted to start, but the Stormers were good,” Ludeke said.

Ludeke also conceded that the ankle injury sustained by tighthead prop Werner Kruger was a major disruption.

“We were forced to throw Trevor Nyakane in at the deep end. He scrummed better towards the end and finished strong, but there were also key penalties we conceded that cost us dearly.”

Bulls supporters from all over went totally emo and often almost off-grid, following the game against the Stormers on Saturdays and the chorus of “Sack Ludeke” is getting louder and louder and buiding up to a frenzy. The biggest critisism is that Frans Ludeke is continuing on a path which does not work and fails to rectify the all too obvious wrongs of the last number of average seasons for the Bulls and Blue Bulls.

Werner Kruger

Arno Botha

Fitness Report:

Werner Kruger, Arno Botha and William Small-Smith have all been ruled out of Vodacom Super Rugby action for the next couple of weeks after picking up injuries on the weekend.

In fact, Vodacom Bulls prop Kruger has been ruled out for at least 6 weeks, if not longer, after he picked up an ankle injury against the DHL Stormers. Arno Botha, who also left the field on Saturday evening, will be out for 2 to 3 weeks with a pectoral injury, team doctor Org Strauss confirmed.

Small-Smith, who played for the Vodacom Blue Bulls team against Steval Pumas in a warm-up match, injured his ankle and will be out of action for at least 2 weeks. Another midfielder, Burger Odendaal (knee) was ruled out for 4 to 6 weeks.

There is some good news on the propping front, with Dean Greyling training on Thursday and Marcel van der Merwe (knee / hamstring) due to return in 2 weeks.

Morne Mellett (ribs), Jacques du Plessis (hip), Hanro Liebenberg (back) and Basil Short (eye) will all train on Tuesday, but Akona Ndungane and Travis Ismaiel both trained on Monday already and will be considered for Friday’s match against the Hurricanes at Loftus Versfeld.

Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg (shoulder) will also be rested for a week.

Flip van der Merwe (pectoral, mid-April), Hencus van Wyk (foot, 3 weeks), Pierre Schoeman (knee, 5 months) and Bandise Maku (pectoral, 4 months) have joined Kruger and Odendaal on the long-term injury list.

Scrum Crisis:

The Vodacom Bulls face a scrum crisis that could threaten to derail their Vodacom Super Rugby campaign before it has even began.

While the competition is only 1 week old, the Bulls have already lost their opening game and now need desperately to win against the Hurricanes at Loftus Versfeld on Friday night if they are to get the campaign back on track.

With home wins a necessity for success in the competition, the lacklustre effort against the Stormers on Saturday has really rocked them to such an extent that the pre-season form means little now.

And on top of it all, despite assurances from coach Frans Ludeke on multiple occasions that the scrum problems have been fixed, injuries have now also hit that leave the Bulls in a precarious position.

The news on Monday that Werner Kruger has a sindesmosis ankle injury that will keep him out for between 6 and 12 weeks has hit the team like a sledgehammer, especially since Springbok Marcel van der Merwe is already out with a grade 1 medial ligament tear and is only likely to return in a fortnight.

This means a new tighthead will need to be found for Friday night’s match and while the Hurricanes aren’t known for having the strongest scrum in the competition, the Bulls lack of confidence in this area is a massive concern.

Trevor Nyakane was shifted from loosehead to tighthead in the game and also struggled against the Stormers, giving away a handful of penalties.

But despite having SA Under 20 prop Dayan van der Westhuizen on the bench, who is a recognised tighthead, the Bulls chose not to use the youngster. So the question now is whether or not to use Nyakane or Van der Westhuizen for Friday’s game, and whether the Bulls scrum can recover in time.

There are questions after Saturday’s performance about Adriaan Strauss’ fitness as well. The Bok hooker missed the entire pre-season programme and only returned to training in the week of the Stormers game, looking rusty and jaded.

While Strauss will undoubtedly get better, the Bulls have already hinted that Callie Visagie’s performance in shoring up the scrum in the 2nd half might need to be looked at again, and depending on how serious they take the scrumming woes, Visagie may trump Strauss for Friday’s game.

Dean Greyling has recovered from his muscle tear injury but will only be allowed to train on Thursday, making him a doubt for Friday’s game.

But Greyling is also not without his scrumming critics, and has suffered under referees for dropping his bind over the past few seasons.

Morné Mellet is also likely to feature somewhere, but missed Monday’s training with a rib contusion, adding to the frustration.

“It was a big blow to lose Werner early in the game and we had to scramble and move Trevor there. We ended well but there were some penalties they got that they converted. It was a facet that cost us 6 points, it was vital. Still the way we ended, we can build from that for the Hurricanes,” Ludeke said.

Ludeke actually went further, saying Nyakane grew into the role and asserted that the Bulls finished on top in the scrums, which is a far cry from how most people saw it.

And then inexplicably Ludeke said he didn’t want to risk Dayan van der Westhuizen in his 1st game in Super Rugby, a stark contrast with the Stormers, who backed their youngsters with Ollie Kebble and Wilco Louw, the latter who like Bongi Mbonambi had to leave Loftus first before he was able to get any decent game time. Louw is also the same age as Van der Westhuizen.

“The scrum was a huge focus point. I thought the guys who were on the field were on top and if we changed there, it is a vital facet of the game, it was a close game and you can easily that initiative you have in the scrum. The guys who were there, Trevor, Callie and Morné scrummed better and that is why we stuck to the guys who were there,” Ludeke explained.

Still it begs the question why you would have a prop on the bench and not use him if your scrum is suffering.

With all the injuries the Bulls were unable to practise their scrums on Monday and will have to wait until Tuesday to hopefully to fix their faults.

But having the tag of being the most penalised scrum in the competition over the past few years hasn’t helped and despite their work in the off-season, it seems the same problems haven’t been fixed.