Power showing against Sharks now needs to be backed up, says Bulls’ Van Zyl

Bulls scrumhalf Ivan van Zyl has warned that their brilliant victory over the Sharks will be worth nothing unless they build on it and maintain that momentum in their huge games coming up against the Stormers in Pretoria on Saturday and the Lions at Ellis Park the following weekend.

Top spot on the log is their’s at the moment, but the Bulls will need to keep winning to hold off the thus far unbeaten Free State Cheetahs and Stormers, who have won both their matches, because Jake White’s team have a bye coming up.

“As a team we took a lot of confidence from the Sharks game (at Loftus over the weekend) and that performance couldn’t have come at a better time,” Van Zyl said.

“Before that we had been a bit stop-start. We didn’t have much flow in our first two games.

“Every game is important, but now it’s really important that we build on that display and move forward, otherwise that win won’t help us.

“We have a couple of massive games coming up, but at least we were more clinical at the right times.

“There was better decision-making and we identified space better. Better decisions lead to better play, and this time we rounded off our chances.

“Coach Jake is very good at making sure that it is all about getting the team to win and we all understand our roles every week.”

While the Bulls were much more accurate with ball in hand, and also off the boot, their defence was also highly impressive against the Sharks as they conceded just one try.

“We’re very happy with our defence, and the combination of scoring six tries and just conceding one is massive for us,” Van Zyl said.

“The more consistent we are in our defence, the more opportunities we’ll have to win, so it’s something we continue to work on.

“Against the Stormers we’ll come up against different players with different skill-sets, but we take a lot of confidence from the defensive effort against the Sharks.

“Joey Mongalo has been great for us as defence coach. He has great energy and clearly loves what he does.

“He’s passionate about defence and that rubs off on the team. We are eager to get better every week.”

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