Are the Super Bulls setting up a dynasty?

Columnist

By Spiro Zavos, 1 Jun 2009 Spiro Zavos is a Roar Expert

Tagged:: Bulls, Chiefs, Lelia Masaga, Morne Steyn, Rugby Union, Super Rugby

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South Africa's Bulls players celebrate after scoring a try during the final of the Super 14 rugby match against New Zealand Chiefs at the Loftus Versfeld stadium in Pretoria, South Africa, Saturday May 30, 2009. AP Photo/Themba Hadebe

At the end of their stunning 61 – 17 massacre of the Chiefs the Bulls players and coaching staff formed a circle with linked arm, went down on their knees and with heads bowed gave thanks to their God for the victory. God helps those, however, who help themselves. The Bulls played superbly and were coached superbly.

Fourie du Preez demonstrated once again that he is the best player in world rugby. Every facet of the Bulls play, from the confrontational defence, to a ball-stealing lineout, to abrasive running by forwards and backs, to Bryan Habana’s thief in the night inercepts and to Morne Steyn thumpingly accurate kicking, the Bulls were several classes above the hapless Chiefs.

If this Bulls side can stay together for a couple of years, and it will probably will with the Rugby World Cup coming up in two years time, they can win a couple more Super Rugby titles and set up a South African dynasty to rival the Crusaders.

The Bulls were helped by incredibly dumb tactics on the part of the Chiefs. At the the beginning of the match, and throughout its diastrous course for them, they steadfastly refused to kick for touch, even when they had the safety of kicking out from their own 22.

Moreover, the high kicks the Chiefs put in were not chased. Lelia Masaga is a one-trick winger. He has a certain pace but his chasing and catching of high balls is poor.

He put no pressure on the Bulls back three. As a consequence, the Bulls were able to field the high balls, return them with higher interest and then force mistakes with their own whole-hearted chasing.

The other aspect of the stupid Chiefs tactics is that the Bulls have developed a great fractured ball series of plays which requires the big forwards to rumble forward and then for du Preez to chose the right time for a hard, flat pass to unleash a stacked backline.

The Chiefs also neglected the basic rule of altitude play, too, which is: ‘when in doubt kick it.’

Teams coming to Pretoria have to learn the Bulls game which is let the ball do the work, until you are within striking distance and then occur everything into attack.

Most of the Bulls tries came from mistakes made by the Chiefs trying to do too much inside their own territory.

After giving up the opening try, the Bulls then got their game together and demolished the Chiefs, helped by the Chiefs inability to take the right tactical options. From the kick-off, for example, Sione Lauaki tried to run the ball from inside his 22. He was isolated. The Bulls forced a turnover. Not long after, following a short-arm penalty awarded by Jonathan Kaplan, du Preez was over for a try.

From then on it was all the Bulls. They scored again soon after and the flood gates opened up.

So superior and confident were they that were able to sub most of their stars well before the final whistle in an indication that the match was wrapped up well before its end.

For years the Bulls were a hard team to defeat in the pre-ELV days with their lineout and driving maul. With the maul de-clawed as it were by being able to be collapsed legitmately, the Bulls developed a wider, explosive running game.

Ironically they have mastered this game just when collapsing the maul has become illegal. Will they give up their running game to go back to their old rolling maul game? Hopefully they won’t. But the ability to roll mauls near their opponents tryline will give the Bulls yet another scoring option.

From what they showed this season, winning all of their home matches and then producing the biggest margin and most points ever in a Super Rugby final (the previous record was 36 – 6 by the ACT Brumbies against the hapless Sharks at Canberra in 2001), the Bulls are on the rampage for the next few years.

In the 14 years of Super Rugby, has there ever been a more impressive finals victory? Have the Bulls played the perfect final? I think so.

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The Crowd Says (75) | Page 1 of Comments

craig said | June 1st 2009 @ 7:51am | Report comment

Just once I’d like to see a player blame their god for a loss….

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sheek said | June 1st 2009 @ 8:18am | Report comment

Spiro,

A dynasty….. who knows? The Bulls will be in the frame these next few years, & possibly/probably win another 1-3 finals over 6 years, but I wouldn’t call it a dynasty.

Back in 1975, Easts Roosters won back to back grand finals, beating St.George Dragons 38-0. Commentators speculated the Roosters, with the talent they had, might dominate Sydney rugby league for the next few years. But it never happened.

The 38-0 win was in isolation. This was the grand final when of the truly greats of the game, Dragons skipper Graeme Langlands, played in white boots (very lairy at the time), which wouldn’t have attracted so much attention except a pain-killing needle injected into the wrong place made him look lame & listless.

Forget the score, the Chiefs didn’t show up to play. It was obvious from their reaction after beating the Hurricanes the previous week, that they considered that to be their final.

Besides, the Bulls have a style that might be almost unbeatable at home, but they are very beatable elsewhere.

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Brett McKay said | June 1st 2009 @ 8:23am | Report comment

I was thinking the same thing Sheek, when they start beating teams away from Pretoria consitently, they may well become unbackable favourites. As clinical as they were, I’m not sure the Bulls would have been as dominant in Hamilton.

That all said, it was a thoroughly deserved win, and I guess the big hypothetical now is would the Bulls beat Leinster??

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JC said | June 1st 2009 @ 8:59am | Report comment

Brett, judging by finals performance, not only would they smash Leinster, they would lay Ireland to waste, and put away the B&IL as well.

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Rusty said | June 1st 2009 @ 8:59am | Report comment

Well done to the Bulls, deserved Super 14 winners. Practically unbeatable at home and getting better on the away leg.
Sheek, only three losses the entire season to the Highlanders, Saders and Brumbies respectively would say they arent very beatable anywhere. In regards to the so called dynasty we shall have too see what remains of the team post Lions tour. I expect most of the senior players will depart this team and the country and provide a real insightful look at our so called depth. In the meantime congrats again to the Bulls and onwards to the Lions!

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True Tah said | June 1st 2009 @ 9:06am | Report comment

Sheek

Rusty makes a good point, the Bulls lost those away games, although they were robbed in the Brumbies game.

In a few years, the Bulls have gone from being cellar dwellers in 2000-2004 to winning the title twice in 3 years. It doesnt put them on par with the Saders yet or even the Blues of the earlier years, but I would say they are at least the equal of the Brumbies.

I hope that they do become a dynasty, it can only be good for the comp.

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Temba said | June 1st 2009 @ 9:10am | Report comment

Good article, good to see non ref bashing article. No matter what the bulls do, very few from here would call them great. I suppose it’s just they way the kiwi’s think. They have broken countless records this season and if its not complaints about the drop goals it’s the ref or Suzy or anything the kiwi’s can come up with to explain why no one can be as good as them.

I am sure ill here the normal CRU done it 7 times, so and so did this, ill hear all the historical achievements, all the reasons why the bulls were so luck but you know what, no one has ever played a game like that in a final, the Bulls (who you would least expect) played the way you all want the game to be played.

The Bulls now are a great team.

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Hammer said | June 1st 2009 @ 9:23am | Report comment

Of course it’s good for the competition – the longer SA sides failed to win the title – the less enthused they got … now there’s real interest in from all 3 nations ….

Bit surprised again from the comments in this article … sure it’s played at altitude – but are you really championing for a non stop kickfest ?… shades of that dire SA / Aust tri-nations game a few years back …

the chiefs know only one way to play – and they had to trust in it .. it was always going to be a flawed strategy – given they would have inevitably tired in the final 20 … but they needed to try and build a big lead … in the end they were blown away by a very good team

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James B said | June 1st 2009 @ 9:28am | Report comment

Don’t get too carried away Spiro. We all know this could have been a different result had the game been played in Hamilton. The Chiefs had no chance travelling so far, having to play at high altitude, and without two of the very best in Sivivatu and Leonard.

The Bulls got thrashed by the lowly Highlanders in NZ. As one of the commentators remarked, what a difference one point on the table can make. Indeed!

Even the referees were South African, though I thought they refeered well, but all those factors combined does make it terribly hard for any team travelling to high velt. Maybe neutral venues should be considered as they do in France for the play-off, though this is probably impractical with the vast geographic divide in Super 14 franchises bases.

You state – ‘Fourie du Preez demonstrated once again that he is the best player in world rugby’. I think you meant the best half back in world rugby. Maybe and probably so, but in my opinion Brendan Leonard is arguably as good, though very injury prone. Lets not forget French Player of the Year – Byron Kellehar.

If the bulls can secure home semins/finals, I think they have every chance of going on win more titles. And why not given the natural home advantages they have over any other S14 side.

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Pippinu said | June 1st 2009 @ 9:45am | Report comment

An absolutely amazing win by the Bulls. Perfect? Well, the Chiefs still did manage to score 17!!

Despite the huge margin, it was still a great sporting event, but this reminds me of a point I have previously made about this three conferences idea (should this mean separate tables for all three).

Few Australians would have taken an interest in this game, or at least not as many as the game deserved.

But I fear that with a three conference system, anytime an Australian side drops out early of the finals, the rest of the finals series, including the grand final itself, will be off the radar because the SA and NZ teams will become even more invisible to the Australian public than they already are.

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