J.J. Harmse

Pretoria -  The humiliating defeat at the hands of the Highlanders will not prompt the Bulls into changing their plans for the week and return to the training field.

However, they will have to think carefully when they reconvene about whether they are getting the best out of their game plan.

That was the view of Bulls captain Victor Matfield after the Bulls were beaten 35-28 by the Highlanders at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday night.

The Bulls will earn four points this week thanks to the ridiculous bye rule, but will only get together in a week’s time to kick off their preparations for the match against the Stormers.

“We know things did not go well, but the team will not train this week. Some of the guys will play in the Vodacom Cup, others are resting as part of the national agreement and the others are off. The bye has come at the right time,” said Matfield.

He does not believe the poor performance against the Highlanders justifies a change of plan, but agrees that the Bulls will have to re-think their tactics.

“Our follow-up work from our kicks is currently not good. There were too many times against the Highlanders where we did not follow up well or did not have the correct number of defenders. We played into their hands.”

Matfield believes this tactic has been proved  effective, but the execution had previously been better.

“We will have to discuss it as a team. If we want to continue with it, we will have to be more committed and accurate in our execution.”

It seldom happens that a team with so many Springboks can make as many mistakes as the Bulls did on Saturday, but that was precisely the scenario that transpired.

Wynand Olivier, who has been one of the Bulls’ most reliable players for the past five or six seasons, had a nightmare game. In the second half he probably had his worst half-hour of rugby since making his debut in the tournament 74 games ago.

Olivier knocked four balls, conceded three penalties and also held onto the ball for too long on a few occasions.

He was still the Bulls’ best defender with Morné Steyn (17 tackles each), but was toothless on attack.

Olivier is in contract negotiations with the Bulls and that may well have played a role in the weak performance. He is considering a good offer from French club side Montpellier, but the Bulls have indicated that they are eager to have him back in 2012, though they are yet to agree terms.

Statistics provided by ruggastats.co.za clearly show where the Bulls lost the game. They made 172 tackles, but missed 22 (13%).

By contrast, the Highlanders missed 10 of their 136 tackles (7%), almost a half that of their more highly-rated opponents.