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Comment: Rob Houwing, Sport24 chief writer
Cape Town – The Bulls’ traditional provision in recent years of a near-nucleus of players to the Springbok cause is beginning to look like a phenomenon under some threat.
For a strong hallmark of the Super Rugby defending champions’ galling 27-0 thrashing by the Crusaders at Timaru on Saturday was how several of their most senior international stalwarts went abjectly missing in action.
We must not ring alarm bells for the broader South African cause too hastily yet, because as long as the Stormers, for instance, remain pace-setters in the 2011 competition then there is at least some cause for optimism ahead of the World Cup.
The Newlands-based crew were overtaken at the top of the overall table by one point by the Crusaders following the Bulls’ pretty ugly reverse, but that was possibly only going to be for a few hours as the Stormers prepared to go into action at home against the Reds.
Still, these are uncomfortable times for us all, and not least because, in successive outings against the Sharks and now Bulls, the slick Canterbury outfit have come out clearly on top each time in an area South African rugby prides itself on – physicality and/or confrontational aspects of play.
A fortnight ago the Sharks scrum, containing almost all the intended major components of the Springbok front row later in the year, was quite spectacularly taken to the cleaners at Twickenham; on Saturday it was the turn of the revered Bok second row firm of Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha to play noticeable second fiddle to Crusaders rivals in every respect.
So a wee bit of a rethink may be taking place already, and nervously, amongst Peter de Villiers and his lieutenants in the Bok brains trust, at least as far as engine-room plans are concerned.
Before the ordinariness – or in some cases rank ineptitude – of several crusty Bulls customers is assessed, perhaps it is necessary to temper things by contemplating the possibility that, subconsciously or not, the visitors were not fully “switched on” at Timaru because they have already won one game in New Zealand and may be “targeting” successive wins in remaining tour fixtures against Aussie opponents the Reds and Force.
It would not be the first time, after all, that visiting teams playing the Crusaders contemplate the occasion with some trepidation and turn their sights more, in certain ways, to remaining engagements on enemy soil.
And when the Bulls tackle the Reds in Brisbane next Saturday, they will be only too aware that the Queenslanders will have flown long haul from South Africa during the week.
Yet it is hard to imagine that Matfield’s men, already having surrendered successive matches at Loftus, really went into the Crusaders game with the clear intention not to hit power-fifth gear.
It seemed more like a case, alas, of their barely being able to start the engine!
And that against a team minus their two most stellar names in Dan Carter and Richie McCaw and also giving the veteran Chris Jack a rare (these days, anyway) start in the second row because of the absence of Sam Whitelock.
Yet still the Crusaders won at a canter: so feeble were the Bulls that you even felt the home side left a little something behind in the dressing room themselves.
Scant consolation for the Bulls was that -- finally managing some moments of moderate continuity themselves in the last few minutes -- they did deprive the winners of a four-try bonus point.
But otherwise it was alarming, one-way traffic in just about every department.
Most unedifying on the day, maybe, was the way some of the bigger Bulls “personalities” like Matfield, Bakkies and Gary Botha and Pierre Spies were outmuscled and forced onto the retreat.
Spies, of course, much prefers to be rampaging about when there is front-foot momentum by his side but that was virtually non-existent at Timaru and instead his defensive shortcomings only came to the fore once more.
The pack’s retreat had a domino effect because experienced backs like Fourie du Preez, Morne Steyn and Wynand Olivier (the last-named player had an especially woeful day at the office, although to his eternal credit he never wholly gave up) were similarly curtailed to back-pedalling and scrambling under great pressure and didn’t look too smart in doing so.
What has become of the Bulls’ famed ability to bludgeon the opposition into submission, however aesthetically dubious some observers might find that to be?
This was not the first time this season that they have played second fiddle at the collisions and a very long look in the mirror may be required among senior personnel if the champions are to re-enter the title picture in 2011.
Matfield himself had a thoroughly forgettable day, sometimes getting his own lineout ball unusually poached from under his nose and also being a prime offender in having the ball ripped from him in contact.
And just where is the apparent “enforcer” Bakkies Botha? The big man lumbered about for 46 minutes and then was called off quarter of an hour before even the norm for him, such was his anonymity as the going got unexpectedly tough.
Instead he is earning a slightly dishonourable little line in ramming his shoulder late or borderline late into scrumhalves ... not exactly like-for-like opponents to him, of course. He did this to Andy Ellis on Saturday.
One Springbok who did seem up for it was fullback Zane Kirchner, always keen to try his luck from the back -- even if it meant putting his body on the line against a markedly well-conditioned Crusaders outfit through the ranks -- and also apply himself more resolutely than most team-mates in last-ditch tackle situations.
Too many other of the Bulls’ Boks are AWOL right now.
Frans Ludeke needs to find out why ...
Cape Town – The Bulls’ traditional provision in recent years of a near-nucleus of players to the Springbok cause is beginning to look like a phenomenon under some threat.
For a strong hallmark of the Super Rugby defending champions’ galling 27-0 thrashing by the Crusaders at Timaru on Saturday was how several of their most senior international stalwarts went abjectly missing in action.
We must not ring alarm bells for the broader South African cause too hastily yet, because as long as the Stormers, for instance, remain pace-setters in the 2011 competition then there is at least some cause for optimism ahead of the World Cup.
The Newlands-based crew were overtaken at the top of the overall table by one point by the Crusaders following the Bulls’ pretty ugly reverse, but that was possibly only going to be for a few hours as the Stormers prepared to go into action at home against the Reds.
Still, these are uncomfortable times for us all, and not least because, in successive outings against the Sharks and now Bulls, the slick Canterbury outfit have come out clearly on top each time in an area South African rugby prides itself on – physicality and/or confrontational aspects of play.
A fortnight ago the Sharks scrum, containing almost all the intended major components of the Springbok front row later in the year, was quite spectacularly taken to the cleaners at Twickenham; on Saturday it was the turn of the revered Bok second row firm of Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha to play noticeable second fiddle to Crusaders rivals in every respect.
So a wee bit of a rethink may be taking place already, and nervously, amongst Peter de Villiers and his lieutenants in the Bok brains trust, at least as far as engine-room plans are concerned.
Before the ordinariness – or in some cases rank ineptitude – of several crusty Bulls customers is assessed, perhaps it is necessary to temper things by contemplating the possibility that, subconsciously or not, the visitors were not fully “switched on” at Timaru because they have already won one game in New Zealand and may be “targeting” successive wins in remaining tour fixtures against Aussie opponents the Reds and Force.
It would not be the first time, after all, that visiting teams playing the Crusaders contemplate the occasion with some trepidation and turn their sights more, in certain ways, to remaining engagements on enemy soil.
And when the Bulls tackle the Reds in Brisbane next Saturday, they will be only too aware that the Queenslanders will have flown long haul from South Africa during the week.
Yet it is hard to imagine that Matfield’s men, already having surrendered successive matches at Loftus, really went into the Crusaders game with the clear intention not to hit power-fifth gear.
It seemed more like a case, alas, of their barely being able to start the engine!
And that against a team minus their two most stellar names in Dan Carter and Richie McCaw and also giving the veteran Chris Jack a rare (these days, anyway) start in the second row because of the absence of Sam Whitelock.
Yet still the Crusaders won at a canter: so feeble were the Bulls that you even felt the home side left a little something behind in the dressing room themselves.
Scant consolation for the Bulls was that -- finally managing some moments of moderate continuity themselves in the last few minutes -- they did deprive the winners of a four-try bonus point.
But otherwise it was alarming, one-way traffic in just about every department.
Most unedifying on the day, maybe, was the way some of the bigger Bulls “personalities” like Matfield, Bakkies and Gary Botha and Pierre Spies were outmuscled and forced onto the retreat.
Spies, of course, much prefers to be rampaging about when there is front-foot momentum by his side but that was virtually non-existent at Timaru and instead his defensive shortcomings only came to the fore once more.
The pack’s retreat had a domino effect because experienced backs like Fourie du Preez, Morne Steyn and Wynand Olivier (the last-named player had an especially woeful day at the office, although to his eternal credit he never wholly gave up) were similarly curtailed to back-pedalling and scrambling under great pressure and didn’t look too smart in doing so.
What has become of the Bulls’ famed ability to bludgeon the opposition into submission, however aesthetically dubious some observers might find that to be?
This was not the first time this season that they have played second fiddle at the collisions and a very long look in the mirror may be required among senior personnel if the champions are to re-enter the title picture in 2011.
Matfield himself had a thoroughly forgettable day, sometimes getting his own lineout ball unusually poached from under his nose and also being a prime offender in having the ball ripped from him in contact.
And just where is the apparent “enforcer” Bakkies Botha? The big man lumbered about for 46 minutes and then was called off quarter of an hour before even the norm for him, such was his anonymity as the going got unexpectedly tough.
Instead he is earning a slightly dishonourable little line in ramming his shoulder late or borderline late into scrumhalves ... not exactly like-for-like opponents to him, of course. He did this to Andy Ellis on Saturday.
One Springbok who did seem up for it was fullback Zane Kirchner, always keen to try his luck from the back -- even if it meant putting his body on the line against a markedly well-conditioned Crusaders outfit through the ranks -- and also apply himself more resolutely than most team-mates in last-ditch tackle situations.
Too many other of the Bulls’ Boks are AWOL right now.
Frans Ludeke needs to find out why ...
