Burger Odendaal. Photo: Gallo Images.
Burger Odendaal, who captained the Bulls in last year’s Super Rugby competition, admitted yesterday that the team had cracked under the pressure exerted by the charging Jaguares in their weekend loss at Loftus Versfeld, and that they had to “set the record straight” against the Reds in Pretoria on Saturday.
The Bulls led the Jaguares 2010 going into the final 10 minutes, but two yellow cards helped the visitors come storming back with two tries to snatch their first victory at Loftus Versfeld.
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The Bulls have now lost their last two home games and will be desperate to avoid a hat-trick of defeats when the Queenslanders visit this weekend.
“The big thing was our discipline, that cost us. We try to limit the number of penalties we concede in a match to 10, and we gave away nine, but the two yellow cards were the difference. It was a pressure point for us and hopefully in the future we won’t crack like that again. We have to set the record straight this weekend against the Reds.
“We have to try and finish those sort of games better, I think our mentality also went all defensive when we must instead keep attacking. But it’s a very tough competition and if you’re not at your best then you will get beat. Home games are so vital, but the season is still sitting in our hands, although we’ll need to get bonus points now in our future games,” Odendaal said at Loftus Versfeld.
The 25-year-old inside centre once again showed tremendous heart in putting his body on the line for the Bulls, and although Odendaal would prefer to do more playmaking, he acknowledges that the demands of modern rugby mean he has to go crashing into the opposition over and over again.
“It takes away from the body and it means I can’t train that hard on a Monday because my body is still sore. But it depends game-to-game, against the Jaguares we had prepared for rain and we needed to get a lot of go-forward and gain-line dominance, which we did. It depends on who we are playing against and how their defence is structured.
“People call it old Blue Bulls rugby, but all the teams are doing it now – you need to get that first phase launch and put your forwards on the front foot. It’s proven effective for all the teams now so I doubt we’ll see any change in tactics,” Odendaal said.
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