Bulls work on their lineouts, tempo for Munster clash

While happy with their mauls, the Bulls have said they need to up the ante in their lineouts and game speed come their United Rugby Championship (URC) clash with Munster in Limerick, Ireland, on Saturday (kick-off 6.15pm).

Bulls captain Ruan Nortje was speaking to media ahead of the match, and reflecting on their 34–28 loss to Edinburgh in the Challenge Cup quarter-finals last weekend. The big lock called the lineouts until he went off in the 56th minute, and they were far from the Bulls’ impeccable standard.

While the team’s director of rugby, Jake White, put it mostly down to the quality of Edinburgh’s contestation and things sometimes not going their way, Nortje was quick to take responsibility for the poor set-piece.

‘We were not good enough’

“Lineouts are a big part of our game where we implement ourselves and try to create momentum. I think that in the first half, especially, there was a skew throw or a miss, a knock-on – just fundamentals that we missed,” Nortje said.

“It put us under a lot of pressure and the way Edinburgh started that game – the pressure just compounded.

“It’s one that we as players take on the chin. We were not good enough. It’s something that has to be much better this weekend.”

He also said they would need to improve the tempo of their gameplay against Munster. “Last weekend… we slowed it down too much and that might be due to us being under pressure. So there’s a massive focus for us to get a better tempo.”

Furthermore, he expected the battle at the breakdown to be fierce against Munster.

With regards to mauling, the Bulls captain said they were happy with how they were doing things and wanted to build on that.

Bulls captain happy to be playing again

Personally speaking, Nortje said he was glad to be starting games again after his knee ligament injury sustained in January, which saw him have a long injury layoff.

“It’s wonderful to be back. It was a frustrating few months for me personally but injuries happen and I’ve been blessed for five or six years before that without any injuries. It was good for the body to get a bit of rest and recovery for the two, three months I’ve been out.”

He said he was working on getting back to his best as quickly as possible.