'Inexperienced' Bulls must start converting
Despite having lost only once this season – in the opening round against the Stormers – the Bulls are outside the top 10 in the 18-team competition, with two wins and a draw in their last three matches.
Bulls coach Nollis Marais, speaking to Jan de Koning ahead of their Round Six encounter with the Cheetahs at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday, said winning their home matches have become a 'non-negotiable'.
"In order to achieve that, we have looked at a number of things we must improve on," Marais told rugby365.
"We still have too many lapses in concentration at times in the game," he said of the soft moments that have cost his team dearly this season.
"We are also working on our conversion rate, in terms how often we attack and score from that."
The Bulls mentor said they have ben creating opportunities from the set pieces, scrums and line-outs, but have been unable to convert en ought of those.
"It is a combination of [a lack of] experience and nerves," he told rugby365, when asked what was at the heart of the team's inability to turn opportunities into points.
"We don't have the experience we require.
"In a key position like lock both our players have just a handful of Super Rugby games to their credit," Marais said.
While captain and Springbok hooker Adriaan Strauss has 122 Super Rugby caps – between the Bulls and Cheetahs – there are no other players in the starting XV with 50-plus games.
The most experienced players – apart from Strauss – are Springboks Jan Serfontein (40 Super Rugby caps), Marcel van der Merwe (37), Rudy Paige (25) and Jesse Kriel (20).
By Jan de Koning
@King365ed
@rugby365com
