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Can Bulls do a 'Barca'?

Comment: Rob Houwing, Sport24 chief writer

Cape Town – The perfect game: if the ambitious, steely-eyed Bulls can strike that up at Loftus on Saturday, you’ve got to think it would be curtains for the already underdog Chiefs.

It must be strangely heartening to the home camp, going into their second Super 14 final in three years and first at their Pretoria fortress, that even in seeing off the multi-champion Crusaders by 13 points in a thunderous semi-final, the Bulls were marginally - but nevertheless noticeably - off what could yet become a blinding “best” at the most ideal juncture of their campaign.

Think about it: that has been the case in several games during their hometown run-in period in recent weeks, characterised by pronounced spells in which they have either gone complacently to sleep on a proverbial “cushion” or not got out of the blocks well.

In each instance, there has been sufficient class and fortitude in the ranks to retain, usually deservedly, a winning habit. And indeed, that habit might be a definitive ally again on Saturday.

But Frans Ludeke and the rest of the brains-trust would do well to remind the players that they have tended to turn it on for 50 minutes or an hour: we still await the Full Monty in ruthless Bulls stranglehold.

Granted, you are only as good as your opponents let you be, and putting them on the griller for a full 80 minutes is just not always possible.

Sometimes, though, the Bulls have also let particularly sturdy grips on the jugular slip: their Loftus league-phase games against the very same Chiefs and also the Force come strongly to mind.

Too conservative

When the Chiefs last came to town on April 25, the Bulls pulled 13 points clear after an hour with three tries to their credit and the bonus-point win very much “on”. Instead they turned sloppy, unfocused and maybe a tad too conservative as they finished just six points better in a 60-point game and could not cross the chalk again.

A week later the Force were similarly jelly-legged on the ropes: 26-10 down at around the three-quarter mark of the encounter.

Instead it rained nasty little counter-punches as the visitors from Perth, rather defying the supposed “altitude” drawback, actually outscored the Bulls 4-3 in tries as they succumbed 32-29.

The script was slightly different in last week’s sizzling semi – this time it was the opposition who hammered in some early stakes, the Crusaders romping to a 20-7 advantage after 24 minutes.

But then the Bulls showed that not only can they carve a foothold, they also have the mental resolve, belief and appetite to turn around adversity.

Could Saturday be the mouth-watering opportunity for their guns to boom out early and just keep on booming?

Again, it would be arrogant and arguably even fatal to summarily brand the Chiefs likely rollovers, but if the Bulls can repair aspects of their game-plan left behind in the Loftus tunnel, in some respects, last week, then a really thumping win cannot be ruled out.

For one thing, their scrum was nastily dismantled by the Crusaders in the opening exchanges. Truth be told, it is an aspect of play they are generally no longer so adept at, with a promising but still very much “learning” tight-head in Werner Kruger and a hooker, in Derick Kuun, who makes a big impact in open play but is more of a Schalk Brits-like runaround than, say, a John Smit-like slab of scrummaging beef.

The Bulls lineout, normally such an unrelenting tower of power, also didn’t routinely get off the ground, as it were: good judge Kobus Wiese noted on SuperRugby this week that the Crusaders seemed to have cracked a few home codes intended for kingpin Victor Matfield and company, and possibly indulged in some disruptive jiggery-pokery as well. Looking at the game re-run, he may well have been right.

At least the Bulls ought to be more eagle-eyed to any spoiling tactics this week by a team whose own lineout has been a flimsier string to their bow in 2009.

Problematic first quarter

The home side’s unavoidably makeshift, eleventh-hour midfield pairing of Jaco Pretorius and Marius Delport fared commendably, overall, in the semi, but they got their defensive knickers in a knot at times in the problematic first quarter.

Still, the organisational script of the backline ought to be appreciably better this week, with Wynand Olivier restored to No 12 and Pretorius probably more comfortable in the outside berth.

What about the prospect of the Chiefs “targeting” or “pressuring” - take your pick - in-form flyhalf Morne Steyn?

Seasoned television commentator John van Rensburg made a valid point on Monday in suggesting a lopsided Chiefs obsession with Steyn may simply give scrumhalf general Fourie du Preez more freedom to sum up situations and use his own wonderful tactical boot to telling effect.

There is also, of course, only so much the visitors can do if Steyn gets his dropped-goal appetite all over again: good field position and “go-forward”, a long, powerful pass from Du Preez, and what the heck can you actually do to shut down his opportunities, unless you are prepared to brave constantly transgressing the off-side laws?

Let’s get one thing clear: the frisky men from Waikato have a puncher’s chance. Any side containing a human wrecking ball in Sione Lauaki, probably the world’s most complete fullback in captain Mils Muliaina, and several other electric runners and steppers, would.

But there is also the clichéd - yet still very real, I reckon - possibility of travel fatigue dogging their best intentions, and even stage-fright taking hold as these first-time finalists visit one of the most hostile cauldrons in rugby anywhere.

If the Bulls can manage their own, unrelentingly authoritative “Barcelona” – Manchester United were like standing-room passengers on a miserably long, bumpy bus ride in the Champions League soccer final, weren’t they? – against the Chiefs, there may be more daylight than most tipsters expect on the final scoreboard.

Matfield’s marauders would simultaneously put out of a timely statement to the now very nearby British and Irish Lions about the ongoing, buxom state of rugby in the land of the current World Cup champions …

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