Cape Town – When a sports team haven’t won a match in 10 attempts, then everybody involved are likely to wonder when things will change for the better.
That may have been the feeling in the Blue Bulls set-up when they lost 33-9 to Toulouse in the Champions Cup last Sunday.
With the Currie Cup side – which was littered with experienced players alongside the youngsters – having gone down to the Griffons two days earlier, there were no guarantees that they would beat Griquas this past Friday night.
Even with director of rugby Jake White sending head coach Edgar Marutlulle back to the junior teams, as well as selecting his strongest possible Bulls side, Griquas still posed a threat.
They have beaten the Sharks and Western Province in the current campaign, and had won their previous encounter at Loftus Versfeld – last year’s semi-final – 30-19.
White had even questioned the players’ form, stating “that’s also why I’ve gone to become hands-on with this group of players. I don’t think they’re being fair; I don’t think they’re playing like they should. I don’t think they’re showing that they deserve to be at this union playing Currie Cup rugby”.
He added that the pressure was on the players now too, as it was on all the coaches at the franchise, as nobody was happy with the state of affairs.
So, the fact that the Bulls were able to put all of that aside and churn out a convincing 40-3 victory showed that they do still care about the light-blue jersey, although they know that bigger challenges lie ahead, starting with Saturday’s United Rugby Championship clash against Zebre at Ellis Park (1pm kickoff).
“You said the word belief, and we have been, over the last couple of weeks… Belief is such a strange word because if you truly believe, then things really happen for you,” Bulls forwards coach Russell Winter said after the Griquas game.
“We’ve been hammering hard on that within our group. There is no lack of effort from the guys – they are really, really trying every week to make sure they get the result.
“But it’s a process, so for us, there’s definite momentum from this game that we can build on for next week.
“But we are not going to get ahead of ourselves. We understand exactly what the competition ahead is, and we will make sure we stay humble and stay on our feet.
“We are so pleased for the fans who have been supporting us, and we will work hard next week to carry this momentum into the Zebre game.”
The Bulls forwards dominated physically and the backs put a series of attacking phases together as they ran in six tries over an out-gunned Griquas side, where the likes of Elrigh Louw, Ruan Vermaak and Gerhard Steenekamp were prominent upfront, while Embrose Papier and Kurt-Lee Arendse sparkled with ball-in-hand.
But Winter was careful to not read too much into the result before facing Zebre.
“It’s just two different animals (Currie Cup versus URC). We just have so much respect for Griquas, and we think they are a good side. I can’t remember it not being tough playing against Griquas. We’ve got a massive amount of respect for them, but they are definitely two different competitions,” the former Lions, Cats and Sharks No 8 said.
“We just want to take it week by week. It was a pity that we were knocked out last week, and rightly so – I don’t think we were firing, and we weren’t at our best.
“We need to create a platform where we can work on the wrongs and start to really get that rhythm and the way we want to play back on the field.
“This was massively important for us. I can’t gauge it to say this was a four or five out of 10 performance – it’s a good performance against an opposition who are a well organised side, and they can play and bring physicality.
“This was a nice box to tick, and an opportunity to get the players on the field and a win behind us.”
Points-Scorers
Blue Bulls 40 – Tries: Ruan Vermaak, Mornay Smith, Cyle Brink, Embrose Papier, David Kriel, Gerhard Steenekamp. Conversions: Chris Smith (5).
Griquas 3 – Penalty: Whitehead (1).
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