Bulls playoff hopes lie in tatters

The Vodacom Bulls hopes of qualifying for the playoff rounds of the Investec Champions’ Cup lay in tatters on Saturday night, after they were hammered 49-10 by French side Castres.

Winger Remy Baget scored a hat-trick as the Bulls imploded in the second half, going from 10-7 down at the break to the massive 39 point deficit in the last 40 minutes, compounding the problems for coach Jake White.

Perhaps the Bulls management had already decided their fate was destined when they chose a second string side - changing all 15 players that had lost at home to Northampton - but the late flurry of points will do nothing to change concerns about what is going on at Loftus Versfeld.

Castres aren’t the best French team in the league, and while they would always be a difficult team to face on their home ground, the Bulls looked more like they gave up, than fighting for every point in the second half.

The result is the fourth straight defeat for White’s side - three in the Champions’ Cup and the Sharks game in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship - and with Stade Francais travelling to Loftus on the back of a win over Northampton, this week will be very interesting indeed.

Still without a point on the log, the Bulls are destined at best to drop down to the EPCR Challenge Cup for the playoffs, or if they don’t beat Stade Francais by a big margin, drop out of the competition altogether.

The key to doing well in the Champions Cup is squad depth unfortunately and here the Bulls - like so many other South African sides - don’t have quite the same depth beyond their starting line-up that other teams in this competition do have.

But while that could be seen as one excuse, there were a lot of journeymen in the team, with experience, and the way the Bulls played would hardly warrant that as an alibi. Instead, players dropping their heads in the second half and allowing the late flurry of tries ended a disappointing performance in the worst possible way.

It is one thing to build a fortress at altitude in Pretoria, but it is clear that the Bulls still have a very long way to go before they can produce consistent results away from home. One shudders to think if this was La Rochelle or Toulouse what the scoreline could have been.

Still, there is only one way to learn and White could well have placed several players in the position to see how they react. Sadly, based on the second half, there were only a handful who had a pass mark in the game.

And yet it didn’t seem it would be that way when the game started. The Bulls were dominant in the opening exchanges, and it wasn’t a surprise when Jan-Hendrik Wessels went over at the back of a rolling maul.

The Bulls shocked the locals and quietened the stands, but it wasn't to last too long.

Castres scored from their first outing upfield, with winger Geoffrey Palis crossing in the corner after a routine backline move that drew the last defender in.

That try, coupled with the boot of Jeremy Fernandez saw Castres into the break 10-7 up, with the Bulls at that stage lamenting the treatment they were getting from the match officials at the breakdown.

At 60 minutes the scoreline was 16-10, but then the wheels started to come off in spectacular fashion. In the last 20 minutes Castres scored five tries - three to Baget - and ballooned the scoreline as quick as the scorers could tally it.

Not only did heads drop, but the stark realisation that the European dream was over hit home hard.

And while things may go better at Loftus this week, there are some serious question marks hanging over the Bulls’ season right now.

SCORERS

CASTRES OLYMPIQUE - tries: Remy Baget (3), Geoffrey Palis, Jack Goodhue, Julien Dumora. Conversions: Jeremy Fernandez (2), Pierre Popelin (3). Penalties: Fernandez (3).

VODACOM BULLS - try: Jan-Hendrik Wessels. Conversion: Boeta Chamberlain. Penalty: Jaco van der Walt.