Deon Stegmann

Dean Greyling

The Vodacom Bulls, need a complete rethink of their game approach and selection criteria, after a loss on the weekend against the DHL Stormers once again exposed why the Bulls will keep struggling.

The answer is simple… scrum penalties are destrying Bulls chances left, right and centre – and 1 prop in particular, Dean Greyling, cost the Bulls the difference between a win and a loss on the weekend.

No less than 9 easy penalty points can directly be ascribed to Dean Greyling’s inability to scrum correctly and legally. It is not a new thing either, he has picked up a plethera of scrum penalties in the last number of seasons and his general scrumming technique at loosehead prop has always been severely flawed. He is simply put, a scrumming liability, and is exploited at scrum time week after week by every Tom, Dick and Harry who plays against him!

Dean picked up 4 crucial scrum penalties on the weekend, but Marcel van der Merwe also picked up an additional 3 scrum penalties. That means 7 scrum penallties, which were either put into points against the Bulls or which robbed them of valuable possession and territory.

In anybody’s book, bar maybe in the crumpled “Book of Fools & Favourites” of Bulls coach Frans Ludeke, it is seen as a HUGE problem!

Things looked radically better in the 2nd half, when Morné Mellett was at loosehead prop and Trevor Nyakane at tighthead prop.

In addition to the clear prop and scrumming conundrum at the Bulls, one needs to start questioning the validity of continuing with Deon Stegmann at openside flank, as he is also a huge penalty offender! When Lappies Labuschagne replaced Stegmann at openside flank and Arno Botha replaced Jacques du Plessis at blindside flank, the Bulls suddenly entered their most productive and least penalized period of the match and the ground ball and breakdown situation control swung nicely in favour of the Bulls, so much so that the Bulls effectively ‘WON’ the 2nd half battle on the scoreboard, by 10 points to 3 and coming within a whisker of stealing the honours at the end of the game.

If these basic and fundamental aspects are not fixed, and immediately so, one can already start writing “Also-Runs 2015” on the shirt of every Bulls player and on every Bulls supporter’s jersey, alongside that tag which is already emblazened there for 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014!

Big Scalps needed:

The weekend defeat at Newlands means the Bulls will have to claim some big scalps on tour to make the Super Rugby play-offs this year.

The Pretoria outfit now face a tough scrap to play knock-out rugby this season with their Australasian tour featuring matches against the Blues, Chiefs, Brumbies and Melbourne Rebels still to come.

Frans Ludeke’s team lost all 4 of their games on their overseas tour last season, and if they do manage to win some away games and make the play-offs in 2015, it seems likely that they will have to travel some more.

Ludeke said that the narrow defeat to the Stormers had simplified the equation for his team, starting with their last game at home before the tour against the Lions next week.

“It is actually easy, we need to go and win away on tour. Obviously 1st of all we have to get back on the horse against the Lions at home.

“The tour will look after itself, if you look forward it is vital and you definitely know that it is going to be crucial.

“We have got a different finish from all the other seasons with 4 away games, but we are looking forward to it,” he said.

The Bulls coach said that while he was frustrated with the inconsistencies at scrum-time, he was encouraged by the way his side were able to put the Stormers’ line-out under pressure and credited ‘technician’ Victor Matfield for his input.

“The pressure we applied at the lineout gave us some field position and we just needed to convert that into chances to score.

“They are working as a unit and really starting to apply some pressure there, it is satisfying,” he said.

Bulls captain Pierre Spies said that with his side finishing stronger the charge down of Handré Pollard’s last-minute drop-goal attempt had been particularly tough to swallow.

“I think if he put it over it would have been great, but if we look at it now if we had held on to the ball for a few more phases I thought we could have gotten away with a penalty somewhere or we might have gotten a try.

“Those are the chances in a game and obviously the Stormers have a good defence but I thought we put them under pressure when we ran at them,” he said.

(rugby365)

Scrum Rethink:

The Vodacom Bulls know if they have to fix 1 thing this week, it has to be their scrum.

Saturday’s narrow Vodacom Super Rugby loss against the DHL Stormers exposed the frailty of their setpiece once again, along with the folly that coaches believe they can get away with a prop who is a ball-carrying specialist as opposed to one that can hold his own in the setpiece.

The Bulls leaked at least 9 points from the scrum – and their props Dean Greyling (4) and Marcel van der Merwe (3) – were responsible for most of the penalties against them.

Things were steady in the 2nd half with the appearance of Trevor Nyakane and Morne Mellett, but by that time the die had been cast.

There has been a lot of anger in the Bulls camp regarding Jaco Peyper’s 2nd half performance, when he allowed the Stormers props to scrum in and not set square in any scrums, but by then the referee had already made his mind up about who was infringing in the scrums.

While it brings up a separate debate about the impact of the setpiece and referee interpretations, the Bulls know all too well the difference between winning and losing a contest like this was squarely their setpiece’s fault.

Bulls scrum coach Wessel Roux has done a lot of work in the past few years, taking the Bulls away from their mantle as the most penalised scrum in the competition to one that has performed admirably this season.

But most of that has been because of personnel. The introduction of Trevor Nyakane at tighthead has been an unexpected bonus and has made the former Free Stater a much more valuable proposition than the Bulls had anticipated.

While it has worked to Nyakane’s advantage, the question must be asked if it is fair to the Bulls prop to be moved between loosehead and tighthead all the time. He did initially struggle when going back into his former position at Newlands.

Yet the desire of the Bulls to play a ball-carrier in Greyling cost them dearly, as it has so many times before in past seasons, and this time the indiscretions were easily turned into points.

That isn’t saying Greyling doesn’t have his strong points. A good defender and a strong ball-carrier he is, but scrumming is his primary job and the way the Stormers got the upper hand on the Bulls’ scrum should be cause for concern for any team.

There is a belief that the Bulls strongest scrum is Nyakane back at loosehead, with Van der Merwe at tighthead, but the Bulls have shifted their props around so much this season that this combination has hardly played together at all.

Instead, they have chosen to use Nyakane at tighthead for most of the matches, often playing him above Van der Merwe and getting good work from Nyakane in the process.

However, the business end of the competition is fast approaching and the Bulls have already learnt the hard way that the margin for error in the competition is minor. A slip-up from a kick-off against the Lions cost them victory in that game, and at Newlands it was simply Greyling’s indiscretions in the scrum.

While on a lot of occasions the referee interpretation has a lot to do with it, this weekend it was simply solid 1st half domination from Frans Malherbe, Stormers tighthead prop.

Bull coach Frans Ludeke admitted that they will need to look at the scrum again – but made the point that they didn’t get the reward in the 2nd half.

“We will have a look at ourselves,” Ludeke admitted about the scrum.

“There were times that we were offside with the referee and times when we should have got the reward. That’s all you want is consistency in decision-making. In the end we had them under huge pressure. They were standing up and folding in, there were hands on the ground, but that is the nature of the contest.”

Ludeke made mention that the Bulls didn’t get the reward, and especially in the 2nd half there were a few scrum penalties that clearly could have gone the other way.

Peyper had made his mind up by then, and the Bulls suffered as a result.

But the Pretoria side knew the strength of the Stormers’ scrum, and could have selected a stronger starting unit, so they have only themselves to blame.

(SuperSport)

Fitness Report:

Victor Matfield

Jan Serfontein

Vodacom Bulls stalwarts Victor Matfield and Jan Serfontein both returned to the training field on Monday as the team prepare for their Vodacom Super Rugby match against the Emirates Lions at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.

Matfield is back in action after a medical procedure on his knee and will be considered for the weekend, while Serfontein, who was a late withdrawal against the DHL Stormers due to a hamstring niggle, will also be ready to take his place.

Rudy Paige and Jacques-Louis Potgieter is still out of action due to a knee injury and hamstring strain, but should be fit to travel with the team when they depart for their Australasian trip on Sunday.

Pierre Schoeman (knee, 15 July), Bandise Maku (pectoral, 31 July), Carlo Engelbrecht (ankle, 31 May), Werner Kruger (ankle, 11 May), Duncan Matthews (knee, 31 August), Ruan Steenkamp (knee, 31 July), Ryan Nell (knee, 31 August) remains on the long term injury list.