The Vodacom Bulls will return former captain Dewald Potgieter to the starting line-up immediately in order to win Saturday’s Vodacom Super Rugby match against the Cell C Sharks.
The crucial fortnight that lies ahead can make or break their campaign, and a win against the Sharks will go a long way to bringing the team back into the race for the South African conference.
SuperSport
After the Sharks, the Bulls face the defending champion Chiefs before continuing their way overseas for their four- match tour. The momentum brought by back to back wins could well be used as a springboard to getting the team into a similar position as they were last year, where they made the semifinals.
The about-turn on Potgieter, who was dumped last year, may be astonishing but there is no doubting his credentials and the leadership skills he brings to the side.
As a result the Bulls are likely to make only one change to the starting line-up, bringing in Potgieter while the rest of the side stays the same.
This will mean that Jono Ross will drop down to the bench and Jacques Engelbrecht will drop out of the match 23 altogether.
And despite the temptation to rest Bok lock Victor Matfield, it seems the Bulls will use him for this game. That’s despite the fact he is a massive commodity with the dearth of five locks in South Africa.
Still, it provides an interesting choice for captain, with Flip van der Merwe likely to continue with the old heads of Matfield and Potgieter around him, and the Bulls looking to rebuild the momentum they have enjoyed in the competition in the last few seasons.
Jurgen Visser’s recovery from injury and Jan Serfontein’s niggles are history, meaning both will take their place with points machine Jacques-Louis Potgieter likely to go head to head with Pat Lambie and his former team this weekend in another massive tactical battle.
Fuelling the Bulls desire this weekend will be their inability to have executed well in Durban – a match where they did most of the playing but received little reward. The rain and their own defensive frailties saw the Sharks canter to an easy win in the opening round, but this is something the Bulls will want to overturn this coming weekend.
Possible Bulls team: 15 Jurgen Visser, 14 Akona Ndungane, 13 JJ Engelbrecht, 12 Jan Serfontein, 11 Bjorn Basson, 10 Jacques-Louis Potgieter, 9 Francois Hougaard, 8 Dewald Potgieter, 7 Jacques du Plessis, 6 Deon Stegmann, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Flip van der Merwe, 3 Werner Kruger, 2 Callie Visagie, 1 Dean Greyling.
@SuperBul
” Certainly the coach must have a say, after all the game plan was drilled in?”
Ther in that one sentence you summed up what is mostly wrong with our rugby, not just the Bulls, but the whole of SA.
We no longer want or need players, we want or need robots.
I’m sure when the coach walked the players through the game plan they didn’t expect to concede early points and be trailing at half time?
I agree that structure is important, a game plan designed around the strengths of the team is important, but I don’t believe that a coach can walk a team through 80 minutes of what must happen on the Saturday. Players still need to express themselves and I’m sure Dewald didn’t select himself as captain.
I still believe the option to have taken the line out was the correct one, but I also believe the timing was wrong because the self same Ludeke kept on substituting Chiliboy around the 60 minute mark.
Go back and look at the some of the games just before that, when Chili came off, your line outs fell apart.
If just one had worked and you would have scored, he would have been hailed a hero. It’s sometimes a fine line.
I’m sure that out of the whole 80 minutes, that period where he opted to kick for touch is the only time Jake would have been confused as he would not have anticipated it and would not have trained his team for that. The rest of the game with the game plan as walked through, he and the Brumbies would have known what to expect and how to counter it.
I like Dewald, he is no McCaw and never will be, but he seems happy with who is and until he buckled under pressure and took the shot, stood by what he believed.
nortierd wrote:
I’ve said for MANY moons now, that SA players have all ability to THINK and change game plans on the field “coached out” of their Rugby persona at a young age.
It’s evident at ALL levels of SA Rugby, and IMHO the reason why we’ll never consistently beat teams like New Zealand.
nortierd wrote:
I think we need to look at rugby like a business sometimes, because that is what it is.
In no business a CEO or owner can make a managers decision for him, it is also not efficient that your manager and staff are all sheep you have to heard the whole time. When you employ your staff and your manager you do so in mind that they will take their own initiative and to grow your business.
Is rugby really that different?
30 @ superBul:
“And 49 000 supporters at Loftus felt the same that day.”
Make that 49 001!!!
I must disagree with DP’s explanation for going for the corners, the Bulls had got out of their own half enough times to take the lead in the match so why not take the points on offer?
@Macrobull
The thing with rugby and coaches is this, when the team wins, it’s because they implemented the game plan to perfection, when they lose, it’s because they deviated from the game plan.
I have yet to hear a coach own up and admit that the game plan is flawed, outdated or not the right type for the players he has selected.
They must distinguish between structures the team wants to play with and a predetermined gameplan that they are not allowed to deviate from, irrespective of the match situation.
No coach has a crystal ball that allows him to foretell what will happen during the 80 minutes, yet it seems that they have worked out the 80 before hand, when to bring which player on at what time etc. That to me is where a lot goes wrong, we even saw it against the AB’s at Ellis Park when Bissy was replaced at a crucial stage, but at the predetermined time.
A rival coach will know precisely when changes will be made to which players and can plan his substitutions or game plan accordingly.
@ nortierd:
I think in recent memory I only recall one game where the Boks played their gameplan to perfection and still lost and that was vs Aus in the world cup, but we still lost. Back then we could have made a decision to commit more player to the rucks, or even a better strategy to clean out the Aussies.
The Bulls for example have a simple gameplan and it is damn effective and they also do score a lot of tries, they will kick, a lot of people will refer to this as “aimless kicking” and it is ideal at Loftus and works really well vs the ANZACS, we want them to run at us, kick it downfield 50m, get the defensive line in order and we regularly turn them over… we kick up and unders, have 2 of the best players in the air in the country.
I remember one case this year vs the Sharks, Louis fouche kicks a up and under 50m, easy ball, sharks kick it back, louis Fouche kicks a 50m up and under, the sharks kicks it back and Fouche gets the ball again… he kicks the exact same kick. That is not an “aimless kicking” strategy it is just very poor kicking.
In that Semi last year, where Dewald had to stand alone against 49000 (49021) people, but his players really dropped him.
I think a coach can admit a game plan is flawed when it has been implemented, if there is a team selected to implement that game plan and when it then fails to work. Only then can you look at variations to a game plan, if one game plan fails because of poor execution, it is very likely the next game plan will not fare much better.
Meyer has this thing with predetermined substitutions which I find uneasy. The kiwis have a similar strategy to their scrumhalf and hooker, but they still play to the situation.
Bulls’ recruitment policy problematic
by Brendan Venter 19/03/2014, 09:56
History has shown that whenever the Bulls have struggled to settle on an established flyhalf, long periods of failure have subsequently followed.
Owing to Morné Steyn’s defection to France, the Bulls recruited Junior World Cup-winner Handré Pollard to much fanfare.
However, the Loftus outfit started the season with Louis Fouché at ten, only to discard him altogether from the match 23 since the arrival of journeyman Jacques-Louis Potgieter.
What message does the recruitment and continued selection of Potgieter send the aforementioned young flyhalves at the union? How on earth can these players entrench themselves in the side when the management team sends mixed messages and affords the pair limited game time.
Hypothetically speaking, Pollard makes an appointment and meets with Frans Ludeke. “Coach,” he says, “I was your number one choice at flyhalf in the Currie Cup but started the Super Rugby season behind Louis. Then Jacques-Louis was signed and now Johan Goosen is a rumoured target.”
He continues: “While I’ve been on the bench for the last few games, I’m not quite sure where I stand in the pecking order. Can you tell me what I need to do to realise my full potential?”
In line with the above scenario I’ve painted, the Bulls have been heavily criticised for hogging young talent. The Bulls have a history of trumping other South African unions to the signatures of star performers at Craven Week, for example.
Not too long ago, the Bulls recruited a bevy of top young centres in Francois Venter, Jan Serfontein, William Small-Smith, Dries Swanepoel and Rohan Janse van Rensburg. While all but Venter remain at some level within the Bulls setup, Serfontein is the side’s only first-team starter in Super Rugby.
Meanwhile, the Pretoria-based side, at one stage, had the pick of SA Schools’ No 8 stocks. At a point, they had all of Arno Botha, Dewald Potgieter, Gerrit-Jan van Velze and CJ Stander in their side.
Owing to the recent mass player exodus, ahead of the 2014 season, the Bulls went on a similarly extensive junior recruitment drive. The point I would like to stress is that a team hording a pantry full of players in one position has an adverse effect on the talent in question and the system at large.
The reality is that the above ferocious recruitment policy even filters as far down as primary school level. For arguments sake, the Bulls may ask a 13-year-old boy from the Boland to relocate to a high school in Pretoria, with the off-chance of one day making their senior professional side.
The current line of thinking, which I vehemently disagree with, is that if we cast our net wide enough we’ll at least find a few diamonds in the rough and hard luck to those who fail to meet our standard.
The above scenario is precisely what happened to man of the moment, Marnitz Boshoff. Boshoff was an SA Schools flyhalf who already then possessed a tidy game and solid core skills. He subsequently did his apprenticeship in Pretoria but was ultimately deemed ‘not good enough’ by the Bulls.
However, young players can learn from his example. He refused to give up and resurfaced at Griquas. His hard work and current success at the Lions bears testament to the fact that rugby coaches don’t always know best, as much as many would like to think they do.
While rugby is a professional business underpinned by revenue generation, I refuse to believe that the recruitment and talent identification process should be carried out in such a cut-throat way.
In my opinion, it equates to messing with people’s lives in the name of professional sport.
While I’ve fingered the Bulls as the chief culprits, all major unions in South Africa must for a moment stop, take stock and ask themselves: are we not guilty of the self-same issue?
Ponder this point for a moment… How would you feel if it was your teenage son in question?
Those in recruitment positions need to realise the power they yield and, in turn, must be held accountable and realise it’s wrong to regard youngsters as metaphorical pawns in their chess set.
As a coach, my philosophy is to view the person first and the rugby player second. I relish the responsibility of a mentorship role and, as a matter of fact, take more pride in the development of the person than I do the rugby player.
However, for all intents and purposes, young players are sadly seen as commodities and a survival of the fittest policy comes into effect. The moment such an environment is cultivated, competition for places becomes so stringent that individual ambition takes precedence over team camaraderie.
@37
Brilliant article
Bulls
15 Jurgen Visser14 Sampie Mastriet13 J J Engelbrecht12 Jan Serfontein11 Bjorn Basson10 Jacques-Louis Potgieter9 Francois Hougaard8 Dewald Potgieter7 Jacques du Plessis6 Deon Stegmann5 Victor Matfield4 Flip vd Merwe ©3 Werner Kruger2 Callie Visagie1 Dean Greyling16 Bongi Mbonambi17 Marcel vd Merwe18 Paul Willemse19 Jono Ross20 Piet van Zyl21 Handré Pollard22 Ulrich Beyers23 Morné Mellet
agreed, top words from a top bloke
Loosehead wrote:
Happy to see Sampie there and the loose trio seems balanced again.
Still starting with the wrong front rowers in my opinion
@ nortierd:
I agree, It is an embarrassing situation, but true.
Jammer vir die lank post, maar hier is dit:
A leader takes his people where they have to be, not necessarily where they want to be, and that’s all I ever tried to do. – Dewald Potgieter
Dit is wat Dewald in sy artikel geskryf op supersport, omtrent ‘n maand na daardie laaste 10 minute op Loftus teen die Brumbies.
Ja, ekself was en is dalk nog een van sy grootste kritici oor daardie besluite, maar na ek sy artikel gelees het, het ek baie groot respek vir hom. Een ding weet ons van Dewald, hy gee alles – of dit nou goed of sleg was.
Hier is my siening oor daardie laaste 10 minute se besluite:
1. Die eerste strafskop moes hy dadelik pale toe, dit is ‘n finaal, jy vat elke punt. Sou die Brumbies daarna gescore het, sou ons meer tyd gehad het om weer punte te kry.
2. Maar goed, hy wou ‘n drie druk en Brumbies heeltemal uithaal, so 1e strafskop kan nog gaan, alhoewel ons swak lynstaanwerk sonder Juandre en toe Chile, wys dit was nie die beste besluit nie.
3. Derde strafskop, weer nie pale toe nie. Hier het Dewald die rubicon oorgesteek en moes hy toe deurdruk met sy besluit om aan te hou vir die hoek skop, want toe het die tyd wel min begin raak.
4. Daar kom die 4de strafskop, en daar verloor Ludeke, wat altyd so kalm en rustig is ook kop, en skree vir Dewald om die 3 punte te vat. Dewald vou onder die druk en bevele, en die res is geskiedenis.
So om saam te vat: toe Dewald moes pale toe laat skop, het hy hoek toe laat skop. En aan die einde toe hy hoek toe moes laat skop, toe laat hy pale toe skop.
Ja, dit is maklik om dit nou te sê, want ons weet nie wat sou gebeur het as Dewald vir die 4de keer hoek toe laat gaan het nie. Albei het verkeerde besluite geneem in daardie moeilike situasie. Ludeke moes toe nie ingemeng het nie, en Dewald moes deurgedruk het met sy oorspronklike plan.
Wel, ‘as’ is verbrande hout.
Daar is altyd ‘n kans as jy ‘n finaal bereik om te wen, maar dit sou moeilik gewees het vir die Bulle om in Hamilton ‘n baie goeie Chiefs te gewen het laasjaar, maar dit sal ons ook nooit weet nie. Dit is wel so dat die Bulle se goeie voor seisoen hul goeie momentum gegee het en deurgedra het tot in die semi.
Die beserings aan Arno en Spies asook Juandre wat toe weg is, was die gatslag.
Ek vir een is bly Dewald is terug.
Ek dink hy en Ludeke besef hulle het albei foute gemaak, en wie van ons maak nie foute nie, dit is deel van menswees en sport. Hulle wil nog ‘n rondte verder saamloop, en nou het die geleentheid daarvoor aangebreek.
Dink maar aan Frans Steyn, ek wonder hoeveel jare het dit by hom gespook, die super finaal in 2007, toe hy 2 maal net moes uitskop, maar dit nie gedoen het nie. Habana score en die Bulle, nie die Sharks nie, kry die eerste super trofee vir SA. Dalk is dit ook hoekom hy terug is in Durbs, daar is nog onafgehandelde sake, wil graag die beker wen vir die Sharks. Hierdie jaar is hul beste kans ooit.
So is dit dalk ook met Dewald. Hy wil nie op daardie slegte noot afsluit nie, maar op ‘n meer positiewe noot, nie noodwendig nog ‘n trofee nie, maar hy wil om ‘n beter manier afskeid neem van die Bulle.
Saterdag gaan ‘n riller wees.
As die Bulle nie die Sharks gaan stuit nie, het die Sharks na Saterdag al reeds een hand op die konferensiebeker. Dan is daar 3 wenne los voor die ander SA spanne.
Sterkte Dewald, en as jou pa nog hier lees: Oom, sê vir Dewald as hy eendag ‘n boek skryf oor sy rugby loopbaan, moet hy oor daardie laaste 10 minute ook vir Ludeke spasie gee om sy kant van die saak te stel. Ek dink net daardie deel van die boek gaan die boek ‘n topverkoper maak.
Bulle !
@ Gena_ZA:
Well the Bulls front row surprised everyone, if you don’t have one of the bulls props in your fantasy league team your not going to go anywhere, of all the worries us Bulls supporter have had pre-season, this one has been put in the top shelve in the garage. Sure I do not expect them to perform like this all year and there might be a few ups and downs, but they deserve a lot of credit so far.
Mellet and Marcel on the bench, are very good replacements, Marcel has been good while Mellet has not been too great, but he will come right.
Mean Dean always gets ripped off, and people are waiting for him to concede a penalty so they could laugh and tell everyone how useless he is, he has had his trouble at scrum time, but mostly because other guys knows the trick of the trade and he does not always know how to adapt, but in loose play he is a really good super rugby player and the new binding laws has helped dean and werner CONSIDERABLY.
Not meaning they are bad bad, but want to see the others starting for a change
Blue Bulls team to play Golden Lions in Vodacom Cup on Saturday: 15 Jesse Kriel, 14 Clayton Blommetjies, 13 William Small-Smith, 12 Waylon Murray, 11 Travis Ismaiel, 10 Louis Fouche, 9 Rudy Paige, 8 Clyde Davids, 7 Jacques Engelbrecht, 6 Wimpie van der Walt, 5 Grant Hattingh, 4 David Bulbring (c), 3 Hencus van Wyk, 2 Bandise Maku, 1 Juan Schoeman. Replacements: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 Basil Short, 18 Reniel Hugo, 19 Wiaan Liebenberg, 20 Lohan Jacobs, 21 Tony Jantjies, 22 Ryan Nell.
47 @ Bullscot:
Only see two front row replacements and total of 22 in that team, thought they would have squad of 23 by now in this competition.
Good Evening South Africa. Actually I am here with you guys, posting from The Wilderness, Southern Cape!!
Watched some of the Maties and Tukkies game, whats this with the Beauty Queen Binbo nonsense?? 🙂
Farkit…: Look who is number 7 on Super 15 Superbru!!!
@ Blue Bird:
Hello Blue Bird lucky you enjoy your time in South Africa! The Wilderness area is one of many beautiful parts of the country.
@ Blue Bird:
Hi Carol & welcome,hope you have a wonderful stay!
49 @ Blue Bird:
Enjoy your holiday here Carol. You in a really beautiful part of our country. Hope you having good weather as well.
This must be a nicer time for you this holiday here in the Cape not having to worry about doing the Argus this time round.
51 @ BrumbiesBoy:
Howzit Bud. Who to choose between your Beumbies or Stormers on bru? See Stormers have some injuries and one injury from the Brumbies as well. Though think will go with the home team. Though have a feeling Stormers might come right in this game. Not sure why just a feeling.
@ Puma:
I feel pretty much the same way, they’ve lost what, three-on-the-trot now, and that alone should have ‘danger’ written all over it.
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