Cape Town - The Bulls may have played some sparkling attacking rugby last season, but their fundamental strength remains their physicality.
That is why last week’s 35-21 defeat to Glasgow still rankles with the players, as they just couldn’t get going upfront.
Coach Jake White described them as being “lethargic” at Scotstoun Stadium, and he is intent on avoiding a repeat in Saturday night’s United Rugby Championship showdown with Munster in Limerick (8.35pm SA time kickoff).
To that end, the former Springbok mentor made a whopping seven changes to the starting line-up yesterday – although he insisted that it was due to a rotation policy.
But he will hope that the new faces such as props Simphiwe Matanzima and Mornay Smith, flank WJ Steenkamp, and even backs Embrose Papier, Johan Goosen, Wandisile Simelane and Harold Vorster will help the Pretoria side to stand up for themselves when the going gets tough.
“That’s the million-dollar question: how do you do it (get the physicality back in the pack)? We’ve spent a lot of time talking to them and the coaches about spending extra time with the forwards and getting them to understand the importance of not only this game, but being able to front up every week,” White said from Limerick yesterday.
“That is the old adage: the forwards win the game, the backs decide by how much. And that’s never going to change.
“Last week, we probably didn’t play as well as we could. I think we probably let them bash us at the breakdown. They stopped our maul, and teams will do analysis and say ‘If you play the Bulls and you stop their maul and you get stuck into them at the breakdown, then you’ve got a chance of breaking their rhythm’ – which is exactly what happened last week.
“So, what we’ve done is to show them some of those clips, and highlighted the fact that we need to get those things right. Russell’s (Winter, forwards coach) worked hard this week with Werner Kruger (scrum coach) on making the forward pack understand…
“This is a massive game – Munster in Limerick, first time at home, backs against the wall. We are going to have to roll up our sleeves and play tomorrow – no freebies.”
Munster were able to pick veteran captain Peter O’Mahony yesterday after he was an injury doubt in the week, and they have some serious firepower in former All Black centre Malakai Fekitoa and Irish Test flyhalf Joey Carbery at the back, along with Jean Kleyn and Tadhg Beirne upfront.
So, they will be hard to beat on a newly-laid pitch at Thomond Park, despite losing three out of four games this season.
But White feels that there has been a change in attitude within his squad this week, and chatting to the Limerick locals will have aided their motivation to bounce back from the Glasgow loss.
“After you get a loss like that anywhere, players will rally around and be a bit more focused – and that happens anyway. But I have seen this week that it’s been a good training week, and we know it’s a massive game,” he said.
“Everyone in Ireland that we bump into tells us and reminds us about how special Thomond Park is, and how tough it is to play there… Everyone reminds us, from breakfast time down to dinner time, of how special it is to be here.
“So, it’s been quite a good week for these young boys because we’ve been almost embraced in the middle of Limerick. We’ve been able to get the whole feeling and the whole vibe of what it’s like to play against Munster.
“As a group, we’ve got to change what we did last week. Munster are still a good team. There are massive amounts of Test experience in that group.”
Teams For Thomond Park
Munster: 15 Patrick Campbell 14 Calvin Nash 13 Malakai Fekitoa 12 Dan Goggin 11 Shane Daly 10 Joey Carbery 9 Craig Casey 8 Gavin Coombes 7 Peter O’Mahony (captain) 6 Tadhg Beirne 5 Edwin Edogbo 4 Jean Kleyn 3 Stephen Archer 2 Niall Scannell 1 Jeremy Loughman.
Bench: 16 Diarmuid Barron 17 Dave Kilcoyne 18 Roman Salanoa 19 Tom Ahern 20 Jack O’Donoghue 21 Conor Murray 22 Jack Crowley 23 John Hodnett.
Bulls: 15 Kurt-Lee Arendse 14 Cornal Hendricks 13 Lionel Mapoe 12 Harold Vorster 11 Wandisile Simelane 10 Johan Goosen 9 Embrose Papier 8 Elrigh Louw 7 WJ Steenkamp 6 Marcell Coetzee (captain) 5 Ruan Nortje 4 Walt Steenkamp 3 Mornay Smith 2 Jan-Hendrik Wessels 1 Simphiwe Matanzima.
Bench: 16 Bismarck du Plessis 17 Dylan Smith 18 Jacques van Rooyen 19 Ruan Vermaak 20 Marco van Staden 21 Zak Burger 22 Chris Smith 23 David Kriel.