Bulls lock Ruan Nortje is looking for an improved performance against Cardiff following their defeat at the hands of the Stormers.
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There was a frank admission from Bulls lock Ruan Nortje when he was asked what the root cause was of his team’s disappointing performance in losing last week to the Stormers.
The Stormers came from nowhere to upset the Bulls 32-19 at Loftus Versfeld. After a promising but error-strewn first quarter, the Bulls fell away badly.
“At the end of the day, the Stormers were just more desperate,” Nortje said ahead of Friday night’s match against Cardiff in Pretoria. Nortje’s admission amounts to complacency, and without the mental edge they had when they were rattling up four impressive wins, the Stormers could harry the Bulls into mistakes.
“There were too many handling errors from us; we couldn’t build momentum, we couldn’t put pressure on them. The Stormers were more clinical than us,” Nortje said.
To the immense disappointment of the Loftus Faithful, the Bulls line-out creaked and groaned. The line-out is typically a tower of strength for the Bulls, and their collapse in this area sums up their most disappointing showing in months.
“As we said in our review, our standards weren’t good enough. Our quality in the jumping, lifting, and throwing just wasn’t on par,” Nortje said.
“We as players have to take that on ourselves — our preparation, our standards, our fundamentals. We know we have to be much better.”
The Bulls’ line-out is certain to be targeted by a Cardiff side coached by a line-out specialist in Corniel van Zyl, a South African making a homecoming to the Pretoria side he supported as a youth. The 2m-tall Van Zyl played for the Pumas before spending three seasons at the Cheetahs under Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber.
The 47-year-old Van Zyl went on to become an institution at Benetton, where he played 160 games, plus eight Tests for Italy. He came back to the Cheetahs as forwards coach (2015-2020), before coaching spells at London Irish, Benetton, and Cardiff.
When Matt Sherratt departed Cardiff last year, Van Zyl took over as head coach.
When Nortje was asked about Van Zyl’s knowledge of South African rugby and his coaching ability, he said: “Yes, we know what is coming. Cardiff will target our line-out. If our set-piece is going well, we can be dangerous, so teams will always try to put us under pressure there.”
Nortje said that Cardiff will also aim to put the Bulls under pressure with their kicking game. “They’re one of the teams that kick the most in the competition, so that’s going to be a massive battle for us,” Nortje said.
“We know we can be much better than we were last week, so the aerial contest is definitely going to be a big focus.”