OPINION: Bulls need to stop 'mental scars' turning them into SA's Leinster

As the final whistle eventually blew after 100 dramatic minutes at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday, and exhausted players left the field, it would have been easy to write off the Carling Currie Cup semifinal loss to bad luck and missed chances for the Vodacom Bulls.

But in reality, there is something a lot more worrying going on at Loftus, and the Bulls need to find a way of turning things around before they literally become the Leinster of South African rugby.

Now I know some will scoff at a Currie Cup loss given the way the competition has been overshadowed by the Vodacom United Rugby Championship of late, but stripping it down to its bare bones, it was another playoff loss in another competition.

There unfortunately seems to be a growing trend from the Bulls to get themselves into a dominant position in competitions, but lose when it matters most.

Leinster, of course, are a super club, and the Bulls are not yet on par with them in terms of depth and success in the Champions’ Cup. But Leinster’s inability to win the URC in three seasons and come oh-so-close in the Champions’ Cup has had their media openly questioning the “mental scars” that may be deep within the squad.

LEINSTER’S EXAMPLE

The Bulls are not quite in the same spot, but Leinster’s example should serve as the perfect mode of reflection for them in terms of their approach to the Currie Cup and URC.

Two URC finals in three years are a wonderful feat for the team, but losing both is not a stat that will sit happily with Director of Rugby Jake White.

Add to that a Rainbow Cup shock defeat in the final at Benetton during Covid and their failures in the Currie Cup and there is a growing trend of not finishing the job when they get to the final hurdle.

It may sound harsh given we’re at the beginning of another URC season, and the Bulls are confidently looking forward to their time in the competition, as they should.

But no other South African franchise takes the Currie Cup as seriously as the Bulls do. Over the past three seasons they have had the most experienced squad in the competition, but come up short every time.

Who will forget that two years ago they played URC players in both competitions - some players played three times in eight days at a stage - as they looked to win both competitions.

EXPERIENCED SIDE

This year, while others have blooded young players and young coaches, the Bulls have had a virtual URC side in the Currie Cup, and went unbeaten until a few weeks ago. There may be a very valid argument of how fair it is to the integrity of the competition that other sides ditched their young players and coaches for URC players in the final weeks of the competition, but it all rings hollow with the fact that two teams that followed this trend are in the final this week, and the Bulls campaign has ended.

Young coach Phiwe Nomlomo has done a fabulous job, but the rest of his management team were basically the same as the URC team will have.

And on Saturday it was no more apparent than when they had the Sharks by the jugular, had them down to 12 men and defending for eight minutes in their 22 metre area, and never could cross the line to score.

FOUND A WAY TO LOSE

It was remarkable how the Bulls simply found a way to lose that game, so much so that even the most die-hard Sharks supporter would admit they rode more than their luck as their desperation won the day.

For those at Loftus Versfeld it was the same mentality as the URC final - dominate up front, but fail to plant the knockout blow.

White has talked about where they are as a side and the fact that they are growing, but in terms of experience, on Saturday the team had more than enough. From the Bulls URC Player of the year David Kriel, to Johan Goosen, Boeta Chamberlain, Cobus Wiese, Wilco Louw and others, this was not a young and developing team. Sure, there are players like Katlhego Letebele and Cameron Hanekom, and the Sharks had more than their share of international quality in their side, but the game was there for the Bulls’ taking.

And they fluffed it.

The same happened in two URC finals, and the Rainbow Cup final. The same in many of the derbies with the Stormers where they dominated up front, but not on the scoreboard. And while the latter streak has now been stopped, the Bulls will have to look at the loss as another failure in the Currie Cup - the competition they tell everybody they want to win.

Bulls president Willem Strauss on Sunday made a telling point on his broadcast group on how the impact of the Currie Cup will be felt later on, and the immediate worry of a long injury list. But Strauss hit it on the head - the Bulls panicked in pressure situations.

PANICKED IN PRESSURE SITUATIONS

“A disappointing result, we should NEVER have lost last night. We panicked in pressure situations which lead to bad decision making and execution. Currie Cup 2024 had its own identity due to its new time slot,” he said.

“It also created a platform to display young talent. On the negative side we ( and it seems like the other SA teams as well) will kick off our URC campaign with a long injury list. The impact of playing professional rugby for 12 months of the year will probably only be seen late in the URC and EPRC season.”

The last point bears some discussion at another stage, as these final rounds of the Currie Cup will have their impact later, but for now it is the Bulls that need to reflect and ask themselves what they can do differently to get that final result.

In the end Nomlomo summed it up after the game, saying the result would be seen as a failure by the Bulls.

“On the whole, we all measure success in a different way, but I don’t think this was a successful season for us,” he spoke honestly. “Did we do well in the season at times? Yes.

“We grew a few young players. We saw Katlego come in today and he looked like a world-beater. Those are some of the things that we look at and we were able to unearth a couple of guys.

“Even Boeta Chamberlain. The confidence to say, ‘Give it to me’ right at the backend, is more important for me.He is going to grow and he is going to get better and better in terms of how he influences the game.

“This game was weird because we had it in our hands and we kind of let it go. That’s the disappointing part.”

Ironically the one player that the Bulls would have put money on to take that last kick was the one they let go - flyhalf Chris Smith - who was Goosen’s understudy all of last season.

But that will be of little help this morning as the team returns its focus to the URC season and the management has time to reflect on a campaign that ended with a whimper and not a bang.