Cape Town - The Bulls lost the physical battle up front against Glasgow last week, but their forwards will face an even sterner test in tomorrow’s United Rugby Championship clash against Munster in Limerick (8.35pm SA time kick-off).
With two inexperienced figures in hooker Jan-Hendrik Wessels and Francois Klopper in the front row, the Pretoria side were unable to convert attacking opportunities from driving mauls as they were stopped by a determined Glasgow defence.
Coach Jake White stated afterwards that his side “looked like a young team” against an experienced Glasgow outfit.
But it is a similar challenge on Saturday against Munster, who will have former Western Province and Stormers lock Jean Kleyn in their line-up. The 29-year-old has five Ireland Test caps, and was chosen in the URC Team of the Season in the last campaign – where Bulls No 5 Ruan Nortje was alongside him.
He is surrounded by tight-five forwards such as prop Dave Kilcoyne, hooker Niall Scannell and lock Tadhg Beirne, although flank Peter O’Mahony is doubtful due to a neck injury.
But fellow loose forwards Gavin Coombes and Jack O’Donoghue won’t take a step back against the Bulls, especially following their 20-11 loss to Connacht in Galway last weekend.
The former Springbok mentor was impressed by Simphiwe Matanzima’s impact off the bench against Glasgow, which could see him brought in at No 1 in place of Gerhard Steenekamp.
The 25-year-old, who hails from Komani in the Eastern Cape, can add much-needed bite to the Bulls pack with his ball-carrying and improved scrummaging, while he is also capable of putting in big hits in defence.
“A guy like Simphiwe came on, who hasn’t had much time as he had a lower-leg injury (previously), which means that as a prop, you can’t really scrum … I’m glad he came through tonight,” White said.
“That second front row played and scrummed well, which bodes well for next week as Munster have a lot of international players, and we will have to up our game.”
Veteran hooker Bismarck du Plessis is another possibility to bring that necessary hard edge and a bit of ‘gamesmanship’ to the front row, while Mornay Smith is also due a start at No 3 as he was the regular tighthead before Klopper got opportunities against Connacht and Glasgow.
Walt Steenkamp has got through a lot of work as the No 4, so a fresher Janko Swanepoel can add mobility and a high work-rate in the second row.
White bemoaned the mistakes inside the opposition 22 against Glasgow, although he wasn’t happy with referee Andrew Brace’s officiating either, saying that “every time we get five metres from their tryline, it looked almost as though we made a mistake. And literally every time they got near our tryline, they got everything right.
“Either we’ve got to look and see what they’re doing and try and copy them, or we’ve got to find a reason why we are not getting it right.
“We’ve been very accurate in the 22 in the last couple of games. We’ve scored lots of tries in the 22 with our forwards, and tonight, we looked as though we didn’t really have an idea of what we were getting wrong.”
He added that URC referees boss Tappe Henning had attended the Glasgow game, and that he would highlight the contentious decisions in his post-match report, but the Bulls must find solutions on the pitch instead of having to lose first and then address the problems.
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