‘We lost against ourselves’: Bulls captain rues mistakes in Stormers game

Bulls captain Reinhardt Ludwig gave credit to the Stormers for playing well but didn’t neglect to pinpoint how errors cost the Bulls dearly during their United Rugby Championship (URC) local derby on Saturday.

The teams clashed in their second north-south derby in the URC, rain falling incessantly as the Stormers claimed a narrow 19–16 win at Loftus. This took the Stormers’s record to eight wins from 10 games against the Bulls in the URC.

The weather ensured knock-ons occurred throughout the match, and set-pieces became fierce battlegrounds.

Bulls strong in scrums, lose at breakdown and line-out

“I think our scrum was good. It struggled a bit in the first half but we got some good penalties in the second half,” Ludwig said, noting positives could be taken from this alone.

“The Stormers messed up our breakdown. They won the scraps and the kicking game. Our line-outs struggled today. We lost against ourselves.”

The tall flanker, who has stood in as captain for the injured Ruan Nortje, Elrigh Louw and Marcell Coetzee, alluded to the mammoth turnover in the dying minutes effected by Stormers No 8 Evan Roos.

The Bulls had been attacking the Stormers 22 for much of the final quarter to retake the lead after Stormers centre Wandisile Simelane’s try in the 67th minute.

As much as Ludwig said the Bulls were their own worst enemies for their mistakes and they would look at these during their training in their upcoming break (next match against Leinster on 22 March), he gave credit to the Stormers for being the better side on the day.

Stormers get one back after first north-south derby loss

Roos, on the other hand, was all smiles as he received his Man of the Match award.

“We owed them one after Cape Town,” he said, referring to the Bulls’ 33–32 win last month.

There, the Bulls again were the better side in the scrums and it was the Stormers kicking game that let them down.

Roos also said his side had started better than they did in that match. Though no tries were scored in the first half, both teams won penalties against each other in scrums and mauls so see the goal-kickers shine and the Stormers earn a 12–9 lead at the break.

“I am super proud of the players and coaching staff and everyone at home who made it possible.”

Stormers captain Salmaan Moerat echoed this sentiment.

“We didn’t get as much reward but we got the job done. There’s a lot of work to do in scrum and line-out but we’ll celebrate this one,” he said.