Simphiwe Matanzima of the Vodacom Bulls on his way to score during the Super Rugby match between Vodacom Bulls and Waratahs at Loftus Versfeld on May 04, 2019 in Pretoria, South Africa. (Photo by Gordon Arons/Gallo Images)
“I’ll take the four points but we didn’t play very well,” was Bulls coach Pote Human’s response after his team scraped a 28-21 win over the Waratahs in their Super Rugby match at Loftus Versfeld at the weekend.
Despite thoroughly dominating the scrums and their forwards having the edge in the collisions, the Bulls allowed the Waratahs to fight back from 21-7 down early in the second half thanks to several soft moments in defence and attack, with the visitors pulling back to 21-21 with 10 minutes left.
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Fortunately for the Bulls, they claimed the crucial match-winning try as replacement prop Simphiwe Matanzima ran a great line and crashed over the line.
“We made heavy weather of it, especially after that first half, we threw away chances and we put pressure on ourselves. In the second half we did not play well, but I’ll take the four points.
“We need to work on our defence from first phase and we need to keep patient on attack. We know we can be a lot better, we have to finish those chances.
“These are good rugby players so there are no excuses. But we made a good step-up in physicality, we must keep getting better there, and the scrums were unbelievably good, that was a big positive and credit must go to scrum coach Daan Human and the front row. But if we don’t use our opportunities against the Crusaders next week, then it’s going to be a very long evening for us,” Human said after the game.
Captain Handre Pollard was full of praise for his scrum, which put the Bulls on the front foot.
“The scrums were phenomenal and they won us the game. There were some massive moments they won for our exits. It was a big ask for our forwards today and I told them straight that they had to really pitch, and clearly they did.
“Now I expect the same next week, in fact we must be much better in all areas. We weren’t accurate enough today and we were really lucky to get away with it,” Pollard said.
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