VIDEO: Yellow card champs need to be more clever
OPINION: The Bulls are the leading South African team as they head into their third Final in four years in the United Rugby Championship, but they have the somewhat dubious stat of being the most carded team.
While the Bulls swept the Sharks aside in the semifinal at Loftus Versfeld last Saturday, the encounter was marred by some yellow card madness.
The Bulls’ discipline crumbled inside the second quarter as centre Harold Vorster, No. 8 Cameron Hanekom, and flanker Marcell Coetzee all saw yellow.
As they gear up to face the mighty Leinster at Croke Park in Dublin this weekend, is discipline something that their Director of Rugby, Jake White, will address during the week?
There is no doubt that some time will be spent on the discipline factor when they review the semifinal, as the three yellow cards almost cost them any hope of victory.
The Bulls have struggled at times to keep their fiery emotions intact, resulting in 19 yellow cards in the URC this season, the worst of all the teams.
Granted, two of the red cards they received early in the tournament (David Kriel and Johan Grobbelaar) were rescinded two weeks in a row, indicating that the referees got it horribly wrong on more than one occasion.
And that Ireland’s Andrew Brace might have missed a few indiscretions by Sharks players on Saturday.
White was asked if discipline was something he was concerned about heading into the Final, and he agreed that, at times, his side did put themselves in tough situations this season.
“I spoke to Schalk Burger Jnr and he said a couple of them were harsh.
“There were things they [Sharks] did that they didn’t get carded for that were almost the same actions as what we did.
“This year we’ve probably been on the end a couple of times, having numerical numbers less than the opposition, by our own mistakes,” White admitted.
“I don’t want to say discipline, discipline…to be fair, was there anything that you saw today [Saturday] that was ill-discipline?
“We are going to try to find a way to be a little more clever and avoid shooting ourselves in the foot by playing with fewer numbers all the time,” White concluded.
Leinster, their opponents, fared a bit better in the discipline department this season, with eight yellow cards and zero reds.
White was quick to point out their much-improved defensive statistic this time around.
Last season, the Bulls conceded 54 tries, while they have managed to bring it down to 44 this season.
Leo Cullen’s side is one of only two teams that have conceded less – Leinster (35), and Glasgow (40) – the other two teams who battled it out in the semifinal last weekend.
“Our defence has improved. It’s the fourth year we’ve played, and all of you will know we’ve conceded 44 tries in 18 games,” White said ahead of the Final.
“You know, that’s far lower than we’ve ever had in this competition in the last four years.
“But we’re now playing against one of the best-attacking teams that we could play against. You saw what they did against Glasgow. And Glasgow are the champions from last year,” the coach reminded.
Croke Park, the venue for this weekend, can host a crowd close to 83,000, but it is expected that it will only be half-full, a crowd size the Bulls are very accustomed to.
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