Well done Bully Boys

Zhahier Ryland tackles Akona Ndungane Photo: Rugby365.com

As a Western Province and Stormers supporter, I am glad I didn't go to Loftus tonight. My wounds from the 75 - 14 thrashing dished out in April are still healing, and witnessing tonight's mauling first hand (and amidst 45 000 howling mad Bulls fans) would have been too much.

The Bulls were close to perfect tonight. Their handling of the first 20 minutes appeared to leave the Province boys confused and awestruck. The Bulls were content to let WP play the ball and then kill them in the rucks and mauls. It was a strategy akin to the Boks' play in the Tri Nations. Except that this time, the Bulls had the dinosaur pack like the one Jake White tried in Sydney - and they worked. They were immense. Danie Roussouw, Victor Matfield, Kees Lensing, Pedrie Wannenberg and Anton Leonard knocked the Province forwards out of their socks in rucks and mauls. Their ferocity was such that it looked like a game of men versus boys. It was here that WP lost the game. They never looked like scoring or retaining multi-phase possession. In desperation they resorted to kicking for position, but inevitably lost ground against the Bulls from resulting lineouts and defensive play.

An additional factor that worked for the Bulls was Derick Hougaard. He started tentively and De Wet Barry looked to pressurise him - but only really succeeded with one hit. Hougaard grew more slef assured as the match wore on and started succeeding with his familiar raking kicks.

In contrast to the rucks and mauls, WP dominated the Bulls pack at scrum time. Frederico Mendez is immense and has clearly taught the WP pack that technique wins over size. Central to this appears to be a low hit and body position. Inevitably this results in the opposing front row dropping their shoulders below their waists and either losing power or collapsing the scrum. Jonathan Kaplan's reading of this was excellent. The WP forwards also contested well in the lineouts, even stealing some of the Bulls ball. But scrums and lineouts are where it ended for Province.

Psychologically, it seems that after being hit back every time they touched the ball in the first 20 minutes, the WP boys gave up. Certainly, after conceding two tries before half time, they were up against it and didn't look like they believed they could win.

As good as the Bulls forwards were, so was the performance by Werner Greeff, Gus Theron, Bolla Conradie and Gaffie du Toit bad. Werner Greeff had clearly not recovered from his sternum injury and should not have played. His lasting contribution to this match will be his truculent flinging away of the ball in touch, that led to a penalty and ultimately the second try for the Bulls. It was the turning point of the match and it was typical of the "brain explosions" that he and De Wet suffer from. De Wet was restrained however and did not respond to constant Bulls niggling. Greeff could have learnt from him.

Gus Theron's contribution was an early hit that saw the Bulls get a penalty 10 metres from the Province line, a ridiculous scoop of the ball from the bottom of a ruck (in front of the touch judge) and a poor handling mistake right at the beginning of the match. There is no ways that Theron deserves another starting place in the WP team. He has been seen as a stand-in for all the years he has played in the team and has never put up his hand to prove this otherwise.

Gaffie looked as though he would rather not be on the park - probably dreading doing anything to deserve another Mallet tongue-lashing in the change room. It is unlikely that Mallet possesses the self-restraint or motivational skills to build up a player who is falling apart. He is in fact renowned for the opposite. This said, Carel du Plessis is precisely the coach to build a player, and he could not succeed with Du Toit. Someone else deserves a chance as the WP challenger for the number 15 jersey.

Conradie responded to the Bulls niggle by trying to take on the Bulls pack himself. He wasn't going to contribute anything to the game that way and the contrast from De Kock's performance signalled a WP side that had given up. Conradie must now be allowed to play some club rugby prior to his Free State move and give up his bench position for Paul Delport. Thought might also be given to Tertius Carse - someone who I believe remains one of the most underrated scrumhalves around. His pace to the ball is fantastic and service is great.

Shimange looks like a player short of game time - his throwing in was woeful. If he cannot be guaranteed a start, he must get more time on the park in some club games.

The WP backs hardly saw the ball. The only noteworthy performance was by Peter Grant. His distribution is something special. He made some snap passes as well as 10m long efforts that went straight to hand. It was a pity that the WP runners could not do them justice by finding some space to run into. Even Zhahier Ryland, who looked dangerous when he got the ball was quickly shut down. The youngster tried hard though and in addition to his sparkling side steps, made all his tackles. He is someone to invest in.

But the closing comment must be congratulations to the Bulls. They seem to live for their matches against the Streeptruie at Loftus. They lived up to their nickname and bullied the WP players off the ball. They played this niggle as much as the referee would allow and as such showed street smarts that the growing WP pack could not match.

If this match was a prelude to the final, then the WP have work to do.

Awesome Currie Cup action

Northern hemisphere teams readily criticise the "basketball rugby" played during the Super 12 and Tri Nations. The return to classic test rugby in this years' Tri Nations is contrasted by a effervesant style in this years Currie Cup top 8.

When looking at the scoreline from Friday's match between the Leopards and the Cavaliers (the Leopards shaded the Cavaliers by 50 to 47) one would be forgiven by questioning the quality of defence and the game in general. But what a game of rugby! Whilst I'll disagree with Joost pretty often, he was dead right when he said at the end that it was a pity there had to be a loser. There are some fantastic youngsters coming through the ranks. Jongi Nokwe is something special, and plans must be made to include him in the Springbok squad for the end of year tour.

Photo: Supersport

Talking of wings, Zahier Ryland's explosion onto the scene against the Lions was something to behold last weekend. He lacks height though and he will have to put in many a telling tackle to convince people that he is a top-class contender.

The champagne rugby being played has also proved to be the release of De Wet Barry. He was special against the Lions last week. He was explosive against the Sharks this week. Inside him, Peter Grant has begun to blossom. I wonder how much of an impact the skills of Andre Pretorius and Jaco van der Westhuizen are stifling the Boks on attack. Of course international players are going to have more space in the local competition, but the way our backs have been shut down (including the highly creative Jean de Villiers at 12) when they have made their limited attempts at primary phase attack, one has to look for some weakness.

Photo: Rugby365

De Wet's revival has accompanied the explosion of the Western Province backline and today's performance by Jean de Villiers drew a lot on the attacking organisation laid by Barry on his inside. In fact, I am sure Jake White must be thinking of a possible alternative centre pairing with Barry at 12 and De Villiers at 13.

The WP coaching staff must also be congratulated. We saw the Province backs create tries through set pieces today. One move involved Barry on the drift with pop pass from Grant to De Villiers on the scissors. Simple stuff that saw the number 13 in under the poles. On another occassion, the loosies joined Barry in a midfield rush who then popped the ball to another back on the loop round. It was, however, a little worrying that Province took their foot off the gas a bit in the second half. They were even better than the score suggests - as were the Sharks poor.

Sadly today's matches saw some spoiling and bad tempered play by forwards. The Lions were lucky not to have multiple players sent to the bin for repeatedly killing the ball later in the match. It resulted in a match that promised much being reduced to a scrappy affair in the second half. The Cheetahs will have reason to feel aggrieved at the referee's repeated warnings but lack of action. They drew close but struggled against the spoling tactics of the Lions on defence.

This constrasted to the performance of Mark Lawrence at Newlands however. The four yellow cards were a bit of a joke. Especially since the offences that earned them seemed far less serious than offences that went unpunished. Twice the Sharks rucked the heads of Province players. Barry blatantly tripped a Natal player. Those were worthy yellows. Not those earned by Pienaar or Shimange. Poor Shimange must be wondering what he needs to do to spend time on the field.

Lawrence's reading of the scrum also left something to be desired. Early penalties against Eddie Andrews for collapsing the scrum were a load of rubbish and unfortunately just gave those less appreciative of Andrews' efforts and scrum-time laws more to chirp about. The introduction of Frederico Mendez at Province has clearly inspired a new lower packing scrum. Deon Carstens shouders were clearly below his hips - Andrews had nowhere to go but down. When Lawrence did get it right and asked Carstens to lift his bind, John Smit was immediately popped - a sure sign of a front row under pressure.

Province have some under-recognised loosies. Besides the talents of Luke Watson, Henrik Gerber and Adri Badenhorst are workhorses who combined with Joe van Niekerk to utterly dominate the breakdown against the Sharks today. Justin Melk looks to be a find, and with Schalk Burger gives the Province team an embarrasment of riches in this department. Ross Skeate is making fantastic strides and White must be watching him carefully as potential backup to the Tri Nations All Star pairing of Botha and Matfield. Together with Andries Bekker (unavailable through injury today), we may have another star pairing in the making.

The Lions also have some under-recognised forwards in Wikus van Heerden and Willem Stolz. We need to protect these guys and find them opportunities.

If Jake White wants to rest some of his stars, there will be opportunities on the end of year tour to blood some youngsters by either using his stars as impact players or playing them for the first 40 minutes and then bringing on the youngsters.

But the Boks are shining in the Currie Cup and hopefully creating confidence amongst the many new exciting talents around them. Let's hope this can carried forward to the Super 14. We got excited during last year's Currie Cup to be disappointed in this year's Super 12. Skill levels appear to be much higher though.

Two issues that bug me: I was at Ellis Park last week for what has historically been one of the biggest encounters of the year - the Lions vs. Province. Then, as today at the Newlands match, the crowd size was pathetic. SA Rugby, you'ce got to get the crowds through the gates. Local game time support relates to the health of the game outside of the stadiums. The second issue is the booing at Newlands. It started about 12 years ago. It greeted Montgomery's return as a Shark today. Skinstad and Krige appealed to the crowds in their time to stamp it out. It has sadly become typical behaviour. It has no place. Newlands used be known for its knowledgeable support.