Cape Town – Jake White admitted that the Bulls have their “backs to the wall” in the United Rugby Championship after going down to the Stormers and Sharks at their Loftus Versfeld ‘fortress’ recently.
They will hope to pick up the pieces of their campaign to reach the play-offs against Zebre in Parma tomorrow, and are favourites to see off the Italians, who have lost all seven of their matches.
Even the struggling Lions, who have won just two out of nine games, beat Zebre 38-26 at the Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi in September.
But in the 29-22 loss to the Sharks, the Bulls were their own worst enemy. As coach White lamented, they had numerous opportunities to secure victory, but wasted several scoring chances.
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So, the biggest challenge for the Pretoria side is for the forwards to finish their jobs. It is no use marching the opposition 40 metres backwards in a maul, but then not getting the touchdown.
Their ball-security at the back of those lineout drives need to improve significantly, while they were also on the wrong side of referee AJ Jacobs’ whistle.
“We ran 40-50 metres with the maul, and then never got any reward – I don’t understand. I think they gave about six, seven, eight or nine penalties (away) on their tryline. So, I’ve got to look and see how we got penalties against us, or turnovers against us,” White said after the Sharks match.
Welsh referee Adam Jones, 28, has been appointed for the Zebre-Bulls encounter, and how he interprets the breakdowns especially will be interesting to see after
White’s team battled to understand some of the calls on their European tour last year.
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On that trip, the referees were particularly strict on not allowing the ball-carrying team to seal off the ball at the ruck, and it is something that the Bulls will have to adjust to early in the match.
One facet of play that White was rather satisfied about in the Sharks clash was the scrum, where he felt that they stood their ground well against an all-Springbok front row of Ox Nche, Bongi Mbonambi and Thomas du Toit.
Is Madosh Tambwe the most dangerous player in the country at the moment? 🥵🔥#TrueToTheBlue @Vodacom #URC pic.twitter.com/fb2ogeBfrn
— Official Blue Bulls (@BlueBullsRugby) February 22, 2022
White was particularly impressed with tighthead props Jacques van Rooyen and Robert Hunt, considering that the injured Mornay Smith is still a few weeks away from being ready to play again.
And the fact that Zebre have four players out with the Italy Six Nations squad – including two props – bodes well for the visitors.
Captain Marcell Coetzee and his team are expected to encounter severe weather as well. There is a 70% chance of rain forecast for Parma tomorrow, and a chilly eight degrees Celcius for the evening kickoff time, so their handling skills will come under scrutiny too.
White will announce his match23 today, and the wet conditions might just see veteran hooker Bismarck du Plessis start ahead of the energetic Johan Grobbelaar.
The former Bok is a wily operator at the breakdowns, while his experience of European winter conditions from his days at Montpellier in France will also be valuable in guiding some of the youngsters in the pack, such as prop Simphiwe Matanzima and No 8 Elrigh Louw.
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