John Mitchell says Bulls will learn from heartbreaking loss

Bulls coach John Mitchell uses the methodology of a teacher in mentoring his rapidly developing squad and he is confident his players have learnt plenty of lessons from the heartbreaking one-point defeat against the Highlanders at the weekend.

Wasted opportunities and some dumb mistakes came back to haunt them.

“That was definitely one that got away on the weekend but we will learn from it and the context of those last five minutes I believe will be the benchmark for our learning the rest of this season. It was a great effort, but we needed to be smarter. Both sides were pretty even but they had more patience than us and patience is a virtue, even in rugby.

“But these are good men and the majority of them are thriving in this learning environment. As coaches and management, we wouldn’t be doing our jobs if we didn’t create that environment. So the first day of the week is probably our most important of the whole week, just in terms of installing our plays and the different groups review their areas, so it’s very much player-driven,” Mitchell said at Loftus Versfeld on Monday.

The Bulls are now preparing for their match against the Stormers in Cape Town on Saturday and it will obviously be a brutal local derby with the South African Conference still being hotly contested and the home side hanging on to a glimmer of hope of still making the playoffs.

“There’s no doubt it’s going to be physical, but it will come down to who’s patient, composed, calm and wins the big moments. We just need to control our game, Newlands is a special place but it’s just a piece of grass at the end of the day. We need to get our game in first.

“Playing away requires resilience and mental toughness because you don’t have the comforts of home. We’re at a stage of the tournament now where it’s getting very interesting and we need to present ourselves with every opportunity. This is a big week in terms of attitude and we will focus on what we can control, that’s all,” Mitchell said.