Do the Bulls really need more X-factor players?

After a disappointing season in the United Rugby Championship (URC) and Champions Cup competitions, Bulls Director of Rugby Jake White trumpeted the need for more X-factor players and reinforcements ahead of next season.

However, the Bulls already have a good number of X-factor players, as well as a very strong squad, which makes White’s call a bit perplexing.

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Bringing in more X-factor players can only be good for the team and should improve it, but maybe the focus should rather be on figuring out what has gone wrong with the current crop to make them underperform and fix that first.

X-factor men

White has often mentioned how the Bulls only have two ‘active’ Springboks, who he calls his X-factor players in Kurt-Lee Arendse and Canan Moodie.

Johan Goosen is another that White claims is an X-factor player, while Blitzbok Stedman Gans and former Boks Cornal Hendricks and Embrose Papier could also easily be added to that group of players, who have the ability to make something out of nothing and change the course of a game.

If you compare the Bulls to South Africa’s best performing franchise, the Stormers, they are close, if not level with them, in terms of X-factor.

The Stormers’ main ‘game-breakers’ are considered to be Manie Libbok and Damian Willemse, while players like Angelo Davids, Leolin Zas and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu could also be included in that list.

But the Stormers seem to be getting a lot more out of their group than the Bulls are currently — and that may be the big difference between the teams.

Bok players

On the Springbok front the Stormers are in a similar position to the Bulls with only a few nailed on Springboks.

Willemse, Steven Kitshoff and Frans Malherbe are the only ‘active’ Springboks in the Stormers setup and are guaranteed a spot in the World Cup squad, along with the Bulls’ Moodie and Arendse.

The Stormers’ fringe Boks then include Joseph Dweba, Marvin Orie, Deon Fourie, Evan Roos, Herschel Jantjies and Libbok.

The Bulls’ fringe Bok players are Ruan Nortje, Marco van Staden, Elrigh Louw, Papier and Goosen, so it is a similar number to that of the Stormers.

The Bulls have a good squad, with depth, and a number of X-factor players, but are not getting the best out of them and it is this that White should be focused on first, before bringing in new players who may also underperform — if there is something wrong in the Bulls’ system.