Back to the drawing board for Bulls

Cape Town - It’s back to the drawing board for the Bulls pack after they came off second best in a 33-9 defeat to the Stormers at Newlands.

The starting front row of Trevor Nyakane, Adriaan Strauss and Marcel van der Merwe did well initially, but the Stormers took control in the second half.

Replacement props Hencus van Wyk and Lizo Gqoboka had a torrid afternoon as the home side took control with the introduction of Springbok prop Frans Malherbe.

“Back to the drawing board and we’ll have to climb in hard, there’s no other way,” forwards coach Gary Botha told Netwerk24.

The home side also dominated at lineout time, with Springbok lock Eben Etzebeth poaching several Bulls lineouts.

Botha admitted that his charges lost the battle up front.

“There won’t be drastic changes. There is progress in the scrums, but we saw on Saturday that there is still a long road ahead.

“Our preparation was good and even though there were a lot of debutants, we can’t use it as an excuse. We’ll have to pay attention to a few things.”

In their next assignment, the Bulls tackle the Melbourne Rebels at Loftus Versfeld this Saturday (15:00 kick-off).