Bulls: Reopening raw wounds
The star-studded Bulls are once again repeating errors that cost them so dearly last year.
Last week's 17-29 loss to the Stormers was marked by a dominant Bulls side unable to convert opportunities into points, allowing the Stormers to build a lead and then hang on for an important victory.
Bulls coach Frans Ludeke admitted there were a few things to "work on" ahead of this week's visit by the high-flying Hurricanes.
"It is a pity we have to re-open those wounds again," Ludeke told rugby365, when asked about the repeat errors.
"When we did our video review we could see that we basically lost against ourselves – we saw some of the basic things [go wrong]."
Ludeke felt his team created good opportunities and got some good momentum to get back into the game – being just 17-20 down going into the final quarter, after having been down 5-17 at half-time.
"We had one or two occasions when it [our attacks] broke down near the line," he said, adding: "It comes down to accuracy and workrate, players supporting each other. Another important factor is the quality of possession and that is where we also fell short – we just did not create enough opportunities form the set pieces to use for building pressure.
"It is a combinations of the two: the quality of the possession we get and the opportunities we create."
Despite some old problems creeping back into their game, Ludeke felt they have made significant progress since 2014.
"There were 94 breakdown situations and we lost [just] three of them – that is a massive improvement," he told rugby365.
"Last year those situations cost us, because the opposition would score tries from 70 metre out. We feel we are getting control in that area and are beginning to create better opportunities.
"Our focus is on those one or two little things that we miss – it is that combination of decision-making and support play, small things.
"Keep in mind the game is 80 minutes and you shouldn't let one little incident determine the [outcome] of the game. We have to keep in mind we got 12 points through penalties by retaining possession and building pressure. That means we can't focus on just one or two [negative] aspects.
"The fact is, we accept that it wasn't good enough – to lose at home is unacceptable. The standard of our overall performance just wasn't good enough.
"We turned 60 to 80 percent of our opportunities into points. It is those vital [other 20 percent] opportunities we are missing out on.
"That will come – we are working hard on it and we are focusing on the right things if you continue to work on the processes it will come through."
By Jan de Koning
@King365ed
@rugby365com
