Cape Town – Assistant coach Chris Rossouw believes that the Bulls’ second-half dominance may actually have worked against them after they chose not to go for a late three-pointer in a 37-28 defeat to the Scarlets on Friday night.
The Pretoria side produced an impressive comeback from 27-7 down to make it a two-point game at 30-28 with about 17 minutes to go following prop Simphiwe Matanzima’s bonus-point try.
The Bulls were winning the collisions and earning scrum penalties in the second half after conceding 27 points in the opening 32 minutes, and the momentum had clearly swung their way at the Parc y Scarlets stadium in Llanelli.
But they received a kickable penalty just outside the Scarlets 22 with 14 minutes left. There was a mini discussion between captain Ruan Nortje, flyhalf Chris Smith, No 8 Elrigh Louw and replacement flank Nizaam Carr, and instead of Smith taking the shot at goal, Nortje decided that a lineout close to the tryline was the better option to launch a maul or attack.
The visitors were unable to convert, though, as the maul was stopped, and after a few carries, Louw was manhandled by Scarlets lock Sam Lousi in a tackle about six metres out under the posts, and hooker Dafydd Hughes won the breakdown penalty.
The Bulls had numerous opportunities in the closing stages, but were just not able to finish off, and instead it was the Scarlets who clinched a seventh victory out of their last eight games in all competitions when fullback Johnny McNicholl scored their fourth touchdown to secure a bonus point too.
“It was a game of two halves. They say hindsight is an exact science… The dominant sense in that second half maybe got the better of us, instead of going for poles there,” Rossouw said on Saturday.
“We also have this principle where, if you dominate and you are up by one or two points, you normally go for the corner to apply more pressure instead of letting them into your half if you kick that penalty – then they are on your tryline again.
“Maybe that got the better of us. At that stage, we were going very well, and the guys just thought if they could convert that into a try, that will give us even more momentum.
“But if we look back now, we could’ve taken those three points and get scoreboard pressure, and then rebuild from there.
“Unfortunately we couldn’t convert that play, that maul… If you look back, it’s maybe something we could’ve done differently, but there were games where we did exactly the same and we scored. I thought maybe the guys went on that thought process.”
To add to their frustration, the Bulls lost out on a second bonus point for losing by seven points or less, and wing Stravino Jacobs sustained a suspected broken leg in the 72nd minute.
“Unfortunately, it looks like Stravino has a serious leg injury. We will try to find out the extent of that – it could be that he has a fracture in his lower limb, but we have to get the final update on that,” Rossouw said.
“We are on our way now to the bus and airport, over the next three hours, and we will get a good feeling of where the injury updates are.
“We conceded too many points in the first half. I thought the guys were unbelievable in the second half to come back from 27-7 down, and almost taking it away from them.
“This was a big win for them. You could see afterwards, and we spoke to their coach (Dwayne Peel). Hats off to their coach, because in the last seven games, he has turned around their club, so they are on a high.”
At least the Bulls will now enjoy a break after “two months of hell”, where they played six out of seven games away from Loftus Versfeld since mid-December, where they lost to Exeter (away), the Stormers (away), Sharks (away), Lyon (away) and Scarlets (away), and beat Exeter (home) and the Dragons (away).
They will be back in action on February 18 against the Stormers in Pretoria, with director of rugby Jake White set to return for that game after recovering from a recent abdominal operation.
Points-Scorers
Scarlets 37 – Tries: Sam Davies, Kemsley Mathias, Gareth Davies, Johnny McNicholl. Conversions: Sam Costelow (4). Penalties: Costelow (3).
Bulls 28 – Tries: Zak Burger, Stravino Jacobs, Cyle Brink, Simphiwe Matanzima. Conversions: Chris Smith (4).
IOL Sport