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Cape Town - Former Springbok coach Nick Mallett says the Blue Bulls' players are struggling to understand the type of rugby coach Frans Ludeke wants them to play.
The men from Pretoria face an uphill task to make the Currie Cup semi-finals after a disappointing 26-15 home loss to the Sharks at the weekend.
Mallett was analysing the game in the SuperSport studio and had the following to say:
"The Bulls are going to really battle to make the semis now. They're going to need to win all three remaining games with a bonus point. We've made a couple of excuses for the Sharks and the Cheetahs, who have lost a lot of players to the Springboks, but this is pretty much the same Bulls side that played during Super Rugby. It was a very disappointing result for a team that should really be at least in the semi-finals.
"They're still playing a forward-dominated kicking game, with up-and-unders and box kicking that was successful for them in the past. They're trying to move away from that into a more ball-in-hand approach, but because they haven't practised that, their players can't produce it during the match. They have never played a 15-man, phase play, co-ordinated type of game plan.
"The players don't really know where to run. They have backline players cleaning rucks and forwards playing flyhalf. There's a whole strategy of playing attacking rugby using all 15 players and they don't really understand how to do that. I think that's where the problem comes in, they're between two stools at the moment."
The Bulls' next game is against the Free State Cheetahs in Bloemfontein this Friday. After that they face the Pumas in Nelspruit before concluding the round-robin phase with a home game against Griquas.
The men from Pretoria face an uphill task to make the Currie Cup semi-finals after a disappointing 26-15 home loss to the Sharks at the weekend.
Mallett was analysing the game in the SuperSport studio and had the following to say:
"The Bulls are going to really battle to make the semis now. They're going to need to win all three remaining games with a bonus point. We've made a couple of excuses for the Sharks and the Cheetahs, who have lost a lot of players to the Springboks, but this is pretty much the same Bulls side that played during Super Rugby. It was a very disappointing result for a team that should really be at least in the semi-finals.
"They're still playing a forward-dominated kicking game, with up-and-unders and box kicking that was successful for them in the past. They're trying to move away from that into a more ball-in-hand approach, but because they haven't practised that, their players can't produce it during the match. They have never played a 15-man, phase play, co-ordinated type of game plan.
"The players don't really know where to run. They have backline players cleaning rucks and forwards playing flyhalf. There's a whole strategy of playing attacking rugby using all 15 players and they don't really understand how to do that. I think that's where the problem comes in, they're between two stools at the moment."
The Bulls' next game is against the Free State Cheetahs in Bloemfontein this Friday. After that they face the Pumas in Nelspruit before concluding the round-robin phase with a home game against Griquas.
