This article by JJ Harmse of News24 , a well known reporter accused many times for biased Bulls reports, about sums up how we should view the Bulls performance on Saturday. I feel much stronger than he does about the issue, he says it very mildly compared to my feelings about the sad state of affairs and this horrible debacle.
The Bulls played their worst game ever after promises of upping their game in recent weeks.
So, in JJ’s words…
“Pretoria – The one positive the Blue Bulls Company should take from yesterday’s woeful Bulls performance is that they probably won’t lose any players for the Currie Cup competition.
It is incredibly hard to envision them producing any Springboks for the World Cup if they keep on performing like they did against the Crusaders.
The Crusaders thrashed the (current) champions 27-0.
It is not often that you see guys throwing away their names in 80 minutes of rugby like we saw yesterday, which is probably the Bulls’ darkest day in recent Super Rugby history.
You would have to go back to 2005, when they also scored zero points (against the Higlanders), to find a more pathetic performance like the one in Timaru yesterday.
The Bulls were unable to catch, unable to tackle, unable to think, and showed about as much heart as a French soldier during the opening weeks of the Second World War.
Yes, they were lucky to get zero.
Bulls coach Frans Ludeke simply cannot continue ignoring the reality of the performance from some of his players.
Pierre Spies, Wynand Olivier and Fourie du Preez, to name a few, have completely lost the plot.
And, if they want to have any chance whatsoever against the Reds next week, Ludeke has to make some drastic changes.
Every player makes mistakes, but the simple ease with which players like Spies and Olivier knocks the ball on, is simply unacceptable.
A clearly frustrated Victor Matfield admitted that those mistakes are unacceptable, but he could hardly point any fingers after his own poor effort.
Chris Jack taught him a lesson at lineout time, and his own handling error just after halftime resulted in the second Crusaders try at a crucial juncture in the match.
But, this is their problem. The senior players are not showing enough courage and passion and display a shocking inability to master the basic skills of the game.
“Not once could we build phases, simply because we could not keep hold of the ball,” Matfield complained afterwards.
It’s nice to read about a new living room set or a snazzy garden from a Bulls player in family magazines, but to gain respect from rugby fans, you should as least be able to catch a rugby ball and wear your jersey with pride.
Unfortunately, this characteristic is absent among the current crop of Bulls.
However, one should not take away anything from the Crusaders, who currently play top-notch rugby, even without the likes of Dan Carter and Ritchie McCaw.
Sonny Bill Williams is the all beast he’s been made out to be, and the disregard he showed for the Bulls defence to score his team’s first try, shows exactly just how much better he is than the Bulls centre pairing.
The Crusaders completely dominated their opponents in every aspect of the game.
The Bulls simply did not belong on the same field.
If there’s ever been an example of one team giving it as good as they’ve got, and one who simply cannot perform worse, then yesterday’s match was just that.
Williams’ try, after he easily broke through half-hearted attempted tackles by Morne Steyn and Wynand Olivier, and three penalties from flyhalf Matt Berquist, gave the Crusaders a handy, though not unassailable lead at halftime.
Matfield’s blunder though, resulted in a try by Israel Dagg, and after that it was one-way traffic.
The Bulls tried to get momentum, with guys like Zane Kirchner, Francois Hougaard and Dean Greyling giving their best, but one handling error after the other halted them from posing any real threat to the Crusaders line.
The Bulls only chance for points came in the first half, when Morne Steyn missed a penalty.
This is the harsh reality for a team, where urgent introspection from every member is surely required.”
A Match Report in NZ
As they ogled the scenic beauty of Queenstown ahead of their match against the Crusaders last week, some Bulls players admitted they had little idea where Timaru was.
Well, they do now – and they will remember it for all sorts of reasons.
OK, maybe Flip van der Merwe won’t recall much after having a section of his hard drive wiped by Owen Franks’ brutal tackle in the 67th minute, but his team-mates should following their 27-0 hammering.
Having arrived in the Mainland after beating the Hurricanes the previous weekend, the defending Super champions raised their eyebrows at the salivating prospect of facing the Crusaders without Richie McCaw and Dan Carter and away from AMI Stadium.
Yet it was apparent from referee Jonathan White’s opening whistle that the Crusaders were out to do a number on the South Africans as they beat them at their own game: not tactically, but physically.
In the republic the Bulls are at times tagged the “Bully Boys”, a label that refers to their willingness to stand over opponents and melt them with a withering glare before methodically feeding them into mincer over 80 minutes.
In Timaru the roles were reversed as the Crusaders forwards became the intimidators – in effect it was trench warfare near the rucks as the Bulls forwards attempted to inch their way over the gain line by using their big men to punch upfield.
And when they were belted back on their backsides, there was always a gang of Crusaders forwards to use their technique and strength to scavenge for the treasured turnover.
Morne Steyn and Fourie du Preez never launched the expected kick-and-hunt game plan but were often forced to kick for position, instead, as they attempted to dig their way out of their own half.
Errors compounded the Bulls’ woes, No8 Pierre Spies was poor, du Preez anonymous and the midfield were just not interested in stopping Sonny Bill Williams when he screamed in on a clever angle to burst 40m to score from a set-piece move.
Although this was far from flawless by the Crusaders – a team with a less charitable referee than White may have copped a yellow card for repeated ruck infringements, and the kickoff receipts and lineouts were far from clinical – the scoreline could also have been far greater.
Dan Carter’s replacement at first five-eighth, Matt Berquist, missed five shots at goal and several other juicy attacking chances went begging as the greasy ball bobbled out of players’ grasp on attack.
Yet Berquist did all that was required of him in the absence of the world’s best playmaker, although he would have been the first to acknowledge that his work-ravenous forward pack also had the Bulls’ scrum creaking.
Coach Todd Blackadder couldn’t resist slathering praise on his pack. Loosehead prop Wyatt Crockett is in hot form, while veteran lock Chris Jack performed ably in the absence of the injured Sam Whitelock. If these teams were to meet again in the playoffs – and, God forbid that is in Pretoria – the Crusaders would be the first to recognise their 27-0 win in Timaru counts for little.
For now, however, they should savour it. Their humiliation of the tourists may have helped erase the memory of last year’s semifinal defeat in Soweto.
But, more importantly, it reinforces that they can cope without stars such as McCaw, Carter and Whitelock.
Flip van der Merwe must have felt he had struck a flying cannonball when he clashed heads with Owen Franks on Saturday night.
Afterwards, van der Merwe looked it too.
With blood weeping from the side of his head and his left eye closed over, the Bulls replacement flanker – who spent several minutes prone on the Alpine Energy Stadium turf – was ushered off the field and to Timaru Hospital to be assessed for the damage.
Having sat on the sideline watching his team-mates for 65 minutes, replacement tighthead prop Franks later admitted the blood was still roaring in his veins as he left the bench and collided with van der Merwe two minutes later.
“I was pretty frustrated not getting much game time and maybe that was part of it too,” Franks said afterwards.
“You’re pumped up, you want to make a difference and that’s what it did hopefully,” he said.
“When you are sitting on the bench you can see where their runners are going and I saw him from a while away – I picked it pretty well I suppose.”
Although he was sporting a black left eye, the 23-year-old noted that was a consequence of a head clash while training on his day off earlier in the week, not his monster hit on van der Merwe.
Following the tackle, Franks who is listed at weighing 5kg less than the 117kg Bulls player, said he was not surprised his opponent was so poleaxed that he could not get back off the ground.
“Not really – I went into it pretty hard and I didn’t come off it perfect myself so it was good to see him down longer than me. I was just a bit dazed at the time but I stayed on my feet.”
Having a fired-up Franks bounding off the pine may be bad news for opposition teams, but the player insists he would much prefer starting.
Franks can see why coach Todd Blackadder is again rotating him, older brother Ben and Wyatt Crockett in the front row this year. “It means you are reasonably fresh every week and it is extremely competitive. You know, it is hard seeing your brother out there taking your spot. But the whole front row at the Crusaders have a good relationship.”
@ superBul:
2
another article from RH in NZ
Last one , now lets see what the Bulls camp can do about this humiliation.
Too big, too committed and too disciplined.
The Crusaders were so dominant in their 27-0 win over the Bulls at Alpine Energy Stadium on Saturday, that coach Todd Blackadder believed it was the best display of disciplined rugby he had seen since he began coaching them three seasons ago.
“Discipline won the day, I thought. Teams aren’t breaking us,” Blackadder said. “The guys have got a lot of confidence from that and they’re transferring that to our discipline.
“To hold the Bulls scoreless, I think, says a lot about their attitude and commitment.”
I said enough, it was not good by the Bulls , but lets see if they can stand up from here. I cant believe we can go lower than this, so the 0 point is were we start from this week.
The Bulls showed before that they can fight with their backs to the wall. The next few weeks will show how much character the team have left. Go Bulls use your brains and show guts in selections and game plans.
For once JJ has it spot-on.
The players are not bigger than the game, the game has evolved and the Bulls better learn to play POSSESSION rugby as soon as possible, well of course this would be after they learn to bloody CATCH and PASS the bloody ball!
Some excuses won’t be swallowed this week, the excuses of not executing perfectly, neither the excuse that the game plan is still the right one, just not executed well.
When basic handling is fumbled to the extent it was on Saturday, the buddy-buddy system between Big Vic and Ludeke needs to go out of the window, and the cane grabbed (Like Oom Buurman van Zyl would have done)… and most of the Bulls need to be thrashed back to reality and sanity.
Ludeke needs to lay the Law down, needs to remind players that they will be out of the squad by means of a mere word or two by him (Ludeke)!
Not good enough for the Bulls jersey, not good enough for the proud Union and Franchise and definately not good enough for us, the supporters!
Anybody out there watching the Masters?
If not you are not you are missing GREAT golf, 2 puts for Charl to win. He took only 1
Well done Charl 4 birdies in a row to win the US Masters
Puma if you missed it you are going to hate this miss. Hell this was a show. At one stage there was 6 or 7 tied on -10.
Then Charl Schwartzel came up with 4 birdies and left them all behind
On the 50th anniversary of Gary Player’s first Masters victory, another South African — Charl Schwartzel — slipped into a Masters green jacket as the sun went down at Augusta National on Sunday. Schwartzel’s 14-under 274 was good for a two-shot win.
I am so proud to say i met this wonderful player at the Sanlam Cancer Challenge when he was selected to represent South Africa in the Eisenhower cup. He was only 17 years then. The amateur top bras in SA said he will go on and win Majors, he was the hot property of SA Golf.
So glad to see him win this years Masters. What a evening of great golf, i enjoyed.
CONGRATULATIONS Charl Schwartzel
After all the pain on the Rugby field is it not nice to Start your Monday with great South African News.
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Thanks to four straight birdies to finish, Charl Schwartzel snatched the Green Jacket from a host of contenders at a roller-coaster Sunday at Augusta National.
Schwartzel shot a final-round 66 — the lowest score of the day — to finish at 14 under and win by two shots over Adam Scott and Jason Day, each of whom shot 68, respectively.
Scott and Day, in the same pairing, were each bidding to become the first Australian to win the Masters. Instead, Schwartzel becomes the third South African behind Gary Player and Trevor Immelman. Player won his first Masters 50 years ago to the day, the first international player to win the Masters.
“It was an exciting day,” Schwartzel said when receiving his Green Jacket in Butler cabin. “So many roars – the atmosphere out there was incredible. … Just a phenomenal day.”
In a wild final day at the Masters, overnight leader Rory McIlroy imploded and Tiger Woods tied for the lead after shooting a front-nine 31.
But Schwartzel also supplied plenty of early fireworks, chipping in for birdie on the first hole and then holing out from the fairway on the par-4 third for eagle.
At one time, there were five players tied for the lead on the back nine.
Geoff Ogilvy strung together five straight birdies on the back nine, and Scott held the solo lead late in the back nine.
In the end, though, it was Schwartzel who was steadiest, coming from four back at the start of the day to win his first major championship.
The last time there was a finish like this it was in 1989 when Mark O’Meara finished birdie-birdie to beat Fred Couples by a stroke. It also marks just the second time in 21 years that the eventual champion did not come from the day’s final pairing. Zach Johnson in 2007 was the other.
The 21-year-old McIlroy shot a final-round 80. He was the leader when he made the turn Sunday, but he triple-bogeyed the 10th after a poor tee shot left his ball between two cabins, and he never recovered.
“Very disappointing,” McIlroy told CBS after his round, but he added, “Hopefully, it will build a little character for me.”
The simple fact that we are not facing is that the Crusaders will put at least 27 points on the Stormers as well.
NZ have moved the skills of their players past us.
They have many more skilled players than us at top level who have perfected ball handling and the contuinity of the game.
We are in deep kak.
If PDV takes his favourite players to the WC and thinks we can play “Our Game” we will come 4th in this WC.
Even if we we do the right thing and drop some of the older experienced players he is still in the kak because NZ are way better than us.
Maybe i missed to congratulate the Crusaders for a well played game. I apologize if so. my mind was so garbled and confused after this drubbing i can not recall any congrats.
Mark Hinton is a well known writer in Australia and many of his article was posted here, i picked a few lines from his report on the game.
“The Crusaders played a beautiful game of pace and precision, and made all the running.It wasn’t a try-fest, as it was in Twickenham against the Sharks, but it was arguably something even more special: a quality rugby side played off the park and left without any answers”
“But it was behind the forwards that the contest was dominated. The Crusaders backs caused all sorts of havoc, both with the ball in hand, and without it.
Halfback Andy Ellis serviced them sharply, Matt Berquist distributed well, the competition’s best midfield were all running and gunning and the dangerous back three found plenty of space”
“FROM Twickenham to Timaru, the more they travel to their homes away from home the better this Crusaders team gets. Earthquakes, itinerancy and even a mounting injury toll simply shall not weary them”
We were properly “snotklapped” that is for sure.
Now we wait and see if the Bulls coaching staff really understand the magnitude of this crack in the Bulls game plan.
Morning Mr Cut & Paste, morning also to Tight Head.
Tight Head, not only has New Zealand skill sets been improved, SA handling skills have deteriorated and drastically so.
We saw 1 of 5 SA Teams win this past weekend, that was it!
Look, the Bulls were dismal… we’re hashing it out over and over and certain individuals are now despeately trying to get a special dig into the Bulls whilst others are trying to mount pressure on the Bulls for drastic change…. but the Stormers were just as bad, losing the way they did, AT HOME, against the Reds!
I said somewhere here on R-T over the weekend that both Ozzie and NZ players seem willing to try things and to push the envelope of defensive structures, whereas South African players play far too deep within stale structures… and when SA players play the expansive experimental type of game, they overdo it as the Lions are testimony to.
… but it is much more than that, it is about the basics and about positively and intelligently attacking space, with due consideration to where your fellow attacking players are… a sort of spacial awareness which is just missing in SA Rugby.
Harmse en McLook (vorige draad) som dit alles goed op.
Tragies hoe ‘n span besig is om in een seisoen dit wat hul oor ‘n dekade opgebou het, weg te gooi.
Selfs die getrouste bul ondersteuner het geweet die blou era kan nie vir altyd aanhou nie, maar om so sleg agter uit te gaan in een seisoen, en die veral ‘manier’ hoe hul verloor, is ‘n bitter pil om te sluk.
McLook in sy artikel is ‘spot on’, hoe op dees aarde weet almal dit behalwe ons spanne se afrigterskorps ?
Ons spanne hardloop nie in die gapings nie, en nog minder kan ons spelers ‘off load’. Nee, dit is stampkar rugby wat nêrens kom nie (behalwe hospitaal toe: Flippie). Nog ‘n probleem wat daarmee saamgaan, is dat ons spelers kyk hoe vinnig hul grond toe kan gaan om die bal sogenaamd te ‘secure’. Dit is asof as ‘n speler begin hardloop, die res begin skree “hopie!” en dan die gevolge ?
Of ‘n strafskop vir bal vashou, of die ander span dryf oor die bal (want Vic, Spies en Bakkies is in die agterlyn), en dit skep die geleentheid vir die ander span om maklik sy verdedigingslyn weer reg te kry vir … die volgende ou stormlopie wat eindig in ‘n ‘knock’ of nog ‘n hopie !
“But wait, there is more!” … as, ja as ons die bal dalk wonder bo wonder behou of wen … verwag dat FDP of MS die balbesit gaan wegskop, en dan volg 15 minute balbesite vir die ander span wat gewoonlik in ‘n strafskop of drie eindig.
Nou is ek moeg, siek en sat vir die getjommel van SA rugby, en as dit moet beteken dat die Bulle (en ander SA spanne) hul oorblewende wedstryde moet almal verloor sodat die Loftus dinksrum (en SA rugby) kan besef dit is 2011 (en nie meer 2007-2010 nie), ‘then so be it’.
Hoeveel keer moet jy nou verloor om te besef jou ‘gameplan’ (stormrugby en skoprugby) werk nie meer nie (ook die ‘verdedigingsrugby alleen’ nie). Hoeveel keer moet jy spelers (wat goed was in die verlede) aanhou kies wat NOU uit vorm is, voordat jy iets nuuts probeer ?
Dit help nie om te wag tot ons heeltemal uit die wedloop is en dan iets anders en ander spelers probeer nie.
Die ironie van alles: een goeie wedstryd kan weer alles verander, maar ek het ongelukkig die aanvoeling ons gaan presies dieselfde span afkondiging kry en presies dieselfde wedstrydplan teen die Reds, met presies dieselfde uitslag: Reds weet Bulle het nie goeie verdediging soos Stormers nie, so daar kom ‘n drieëfees soos min in Sydney.
Nou ja, daar is dit uit my sisteem. Nou voel ek ook beter ! 😉
O ja, nog een ding: Bulle bo !
@ bdb:
alles wat jy se is waar, maar dit laat my net in een rigting dink, ons is nie slim genoeg nie. en die ouer garde moet nou aftree, hulle is te stadig by die afbreek punte.
The Reds must be absolutely licking their lips to inflict more damage on the Bulls this week….
Flok, dissie lekker om my span so te sien ploeter nie!
Where are all the Stormers supporters this morning?
On Saturday morning after the Bulls loss, they were almost fighting each other to get the biggest dig going and to belittle the Bulls as much as they could (exceptions to this rule amongst selected Stormers ranks have been duly noted and was appreciated).
For instance, where is Saint hiding, what is he hiding from…. na hy so duidelik sy eie tong vasgetrap het Saterdag?
jj harmse stel dit goed,die bulle kan gelukkig voel dat hulle nul gekry het
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