The Bulls are bullish for the Super 14 final

 
Spiro Zavos Columnist

By , 11 May 2009 Spiro Zavos is a Roar Expert

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Brumbies Francis Fainifo tackles the Blues Rene Ranger in the Super 14 rugby match at Canberra Stadium, Saturday, May 9, 2009. The Brumbies won the match 37-15. (AAP Image/Alan Porritt)

Brumbies Francis Fainifo tackles the Blues Rene Ranger in the Super 14 rugby match at Canberra Stadium, Saturday, May 9, 2009. The Brumbies won the match 37-15. (AAP Image/Alan Porritt)

The last two rounds of the Super 14 tournament resemble a rope with a knot in the middle and the contending teams are pulling both ends as hard as they can. The result is a very tight knot of seven teams contending for four places in the finals.

It seems certain that the last match of the tournament, with the Bulls (top of the table) playing the Sharks (6) will have some effect on the allocation of finals places and where the finals will be played.

The big story of the round, in my view, was the very impressive bonus point four-try victory by the Bulls over a strong challenge from the Cheetahs. The victory was achieved by perfect altitude rugby by the Bulls.

Altitude puts extreme pressure on the aerobic fitness of the players – and referees. It is far more effective to play position, and then chance your arm from well inside your opponent’s half of the field. This type of game is helped, too, by the fact that the ball travels much further and higher at altitude.

So the Bulls have created this altitude machine with a formidable lineout to capitalise on their kicking game. They have huge ball-runners in the forwards to smash away near their opponent’s tryline. And they have Bryan Habana, the explosive broken field runner to give the team the threat of exploiting a poor opposition kick (which he did to set up one try) or an intercept (which he also did to score the fourth, crucial try for the Bulls).

Why any team would kick speculatively to Habana’s wing or do cut-out passes anywhere in his vicinity is a mystery to me.

Habana is one of those gifted players who reacts instinctively and correctly to make the best of any of the situations he is confronted with on the rugby field.

For the most part the Bulls attack, rather like the Pumas so successfully at the 2007 Rugby World Cup, through massive bombs which are chased hard. Turnovers from these bombs are exploited by barrel-chested, thigh-pumping running.

The Bulls came back from a 20 – 10 deficit in the second half to steam-roller the Cheetahs. This sort of response, rather like the Brumbies against the hapless Blues, is the sign of a team that has that special chemistry that makes the whole team much better than the sum of its parts.

It’s a hard style for opponents to combat, too, as the Bulls do not give their opposition much to play off. I would expect them, therefore, to defeat the Sharks who are now fulfilling Robbie Deans’ prediction when they were on top of the table that they ‘might not make the finals.’

Of the top 7 sides, it’s hard to see the Waratahs and the Sharks getting into the finals, and certainly not both these teams. The Waratahs for/against record is not good and this might be crucial in the end if they get 5 points from defeating the Lions.

Most of us who have an interest in the Waratahs getting into the finals will say that if they fail, they’ll deserve to miss out.

Even against the Sharks, the Waratahs continued to kick away possession. Someone should tell whoever creates the tactics for the Waratahs that it is hard to score points when you are kicking the ball to the opposition, and – unlike the Bulls – don’t bother to chase hard to get the ball back or force the opposition into errors.

There are ominous signs that the finger of suspicion is being pointed at Phil Waugh and Michael Foley for these negative tactics. The Sunday Telegraph, that great rugby union newspaper, ran a gossip item on Sunday to the effect that Chris Hickey’s position is under threat from Foley; and that Waugh seems to be the one laying the law in the dressing room at half-time.

Journalists know that these sort of items do not come out of thin air. Your correspondent has been regaled by rugby insiders about how when Foley was an assistant coach at Bath they went 9 games without scoring a try. More recently, there have been telephone calls along the lines of the Sunday Telegraph gossip item.

What does all this mean? Who knows. But it is true that with the talent they had this year, along with the fact that they were finalists last year, the Waratahs should have been more strongly placed on the ladder to make the finals.

If the Waratahs do make the finals, it will be at the bottom of the top four. They would then probably play the Bulls. The one advantage in all of this is that the Waratahs would not have to make the journey from Sydney to Pretoria to play the match.

Will this unlikely outcome be an example of good luck or some sort of planning to tie in with the Waratahs’ last three matches in the round robin being in South Africa?

As far as the Brumbies are concerned their future lies in their own hands. If they defeat the Chiefs, especially with a bonus point, they will make the finals. This is a tremendous result for a team that has suffered injuries and trauma during the season.

A monster tackle by Stirling Mortlock on Tony Woodcock which left the prop prone on the ground and Mortlock groggy and led to a try indicated that the Brumbies are that most dangerous of sides, a team that plays with a sort of invincible self-belief that it is capable of doing great things.

Have they got at least one more match in them for their ‘Gipper,’ Shawn Mackay. What a wonderful story it will be if they do!

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