Last week, the Bulls lost the physical struggle up front against Glasgow. However, their forwards will face an even greater challenge in tomorrow’s United Rugby Championship match against Munster in Limerick (8.35pm SA time kick-off).
With hooker Jan-Hendrik Wessels and Francois Klopper in the front row, two inexperienced players, the Pretoria team was unable to convert offensive opportunities from driving mauls due to a resolute Glasgow defense.
After the game, head coach Jake White claimed that his club “looked like a youthful team” against an experienced Glasgow squad.
On Saturday, though, they will face a similar struggle against Munster, who will feature former Western Province and Stormers lock Jean Kleyn. The 29-year-old has earned five Ireland Test caps and was named to the URC Team of the Season last season, with Bulls No. 5 Ruan Nortje.
He is surrounded by tight-five forwards including prop Dave Kilcoyne, hooker Niall Scannell, and lock Tadhg Beirne, while winger Peter O’Mahony’s status is uncertain owing to a neck injury.
Gavin Coombes and Jack O’Donoghue, though, will not take a step back against the Bulls, especially after last weekend’s 20-11 setback to Connacht in Galway.
The former Springbok coach was impressed with Simphiwe Matanzima’s performance off the bench against Glasgow, which might lead to him replacing Gerhard Steenkamp as the starting No. 1.
The 25-year-old, who hails from Komani in the Eastern Cape, can offer much-needed bite to the Bulls pack with his ball-carrying and improved scrummaging, as well as his ability to deliver huge knocks on defense.
“A player like Simphiwe comes on who hasn’t played much due to a lower-leg injury, which means that as a prop, you can’t really scrum… “I’m delighted he delivered tonight,” remarked White.
This speaks well for next week, as Munster have several international players and we will need to step up our game against them.
The veteran hooker Bismarck du Plessis is also an option to add the requisite physicality and ‘gamesmanship’ to the front row, while Mornay Smith is also scheduled to start at No. 3, as he was the regular tighthead before Klopper received opportunities against Connacht and Glasgow.
Walt Steenkamp has endured a great deal of labor as the No. 4, so a rejuvenated Janko Swanepoel can provide movement and work rate to the second row.
White criticised the errors inside the opposition’s 22 against Glasgow, but he was also dissatisfied with referee Andrew Brace’s officiating, stating, “Every time we got inside five metres of their tryline, it almost appeared as if we had made a mistake. Literally every time they approached our tryline, they performed flawlessly.
Either we must observe what they are doing and attempt to replicate it, or we must determine why we are not succeeding.
In the last couple of games, we’ve been really accurate inside the 22. We’ve scored numerous scores inside the 22 with our forwards, but tonight it appeared as like we had no understanding what we were doing wrong.
He said that URC referees chief Tappe Henning had attended the Glasgow game and would highlight the disputed calls in his post-match report, but the Bulls must find solutions on the field rather than first losing and then addressing the issues.