Cape Town – They received a punch to the nose against the Pumas and things can hopefully only get better from here on for the Blue Bulls.
That was the reaction of the Pretoria side’s Currie Cup coach Edgar Marutlulle after his team was comprehensively beaten by the defending champions as they sealed a 63-15 win in their opener at Loftus on Sunday.
According to Marutlulle, his team lost the contest at the breakdown and the Pumas wanted the win more.
The visitors ran in nine tries in the crushing win with the backs turning on the magic, while the big units of the Pumas dominated up front over a hapless Bulls team.
Former Bulls flyhalf and now Pumas general Tinus de Beer was the architect for his team, marshalling his backline that ran the Bulls to pieces.
But it was up front where the domination over the home team started.
“They were more dominant than us with turnover play, we had opportunities. But the moment when the ball spilled over, their ability to take defence from attack, was outstanding,” Marutlulle said.
“They were also much better at the breakdown than us. The contest was at the breakdown.”
Marutlulle said it was a disappointing outing in terms of results in his first match as coach at Loftus. But he also acknowledged that the Pumas played very well.
Another tough challenge awaits the Bulls this week as the high-flying Western Province heads to Loftus for a north-south derby on Friday.
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The Cape side beat the Lions 44-28 at Ellis Park on Saturday and will be looking to continue their good start to the campaign.
“It doesn’t get easier, you’re going to get a difficult team week in and week out. Quite a few people have questioned the strength of the Currie Cup,” Marutlulle said.
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“But you can see, the Pumas have been together for four years. We had to adapt to a system here. The Griffons led the Sharks in the first half (on Saturday).
“Hopefully we can improve, especially from a coaching and player perspective. We need to see maybe where we failed the players from a preparation perspective and hopefully we can bring something better this weekend.”
IOL Sport
