Vodacom Bulls coach Jake White said his team’s opening Investec Champions Cup game against Saracens would be a good measure of where they are in terms of the big teams in Europe.
On Saturday night Saracens answered that in no uncertain terms as they downed a poor Bulls side 27-5 in a performance the Pretoria side would rather forget.
The scoreline flatters the Bulls, and considering they have now shipped 77 points in their last two games in England in the Champions Cup, White would be hard pressed not to admit that the side may be one of the big guns in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship, but in the Champions Cup they still have a long way to go.
The Saracens complete their #InvestecChampionsCup December revenge on the Bulls đź’Ş pic.twitter.com/skMlkmCndF
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) December 7, 2024
It was a night where Storm Darragh threatened to half the game, but in the end continued amidst gale force winds that would have been more suited to windsurfing and sailing than rugby.
But while Saracens adapted and used the weather to their advantage, the Bulls did the opposite.
It was a night where convention would dictate that a team with a good pack and a good 10 would dominate and send the ball into the corners. But in this case, the Bulls did the opposite.
While they started with the wind at their backs and their forwards made metres in the carry, they were never in control.
Their No 10, Johan Goosen, looked as if he would have rather been in the north pole than at the StoneX stadium, and any thoughts that he would dish out a classic kicking 10s performance were out the window when he put his second kickoff over the dead-ball line.
But if Goosen was a culprit, some of his team-mates were no better, and the Bulls lurched from one set-piece to another looking as if they wanted to get the time over, rather than making a game of it.
ATROCIOUS CONDITIONS
To be fair, the conditions were atrocious, but they were the same for both sides and if the Bulls want to see themselves - as White’s ambition is - as a big Champions Cup team they need to be able to dominate on all surfaces and in all conditions, and not just on their favourite fast track at a sunny Loftus Versfeld.
Saracens were not as brutal as Toulouse or say La Rochelle may have been, but they were effective.
Given that Northampton visit Loftus this coming weekend, and beat Castres Olympique 38-8 in their game at the same kickoff time, White has a lot of work to do this week.
Saracens flooded the breakdown and attacked with a rush defence that was more than bordering offside.
They slowed the Bulls' ball down, fell over the ruck and twice ripped the ball after referee Craig Evans had told them to release, all without sanction.
Evans was nowhere near his best, but if anyone wanted to blame the ref for this scoreline, it would be Saracens, who should have won by a lot more.
Given the Bulls weren’t able in the second half to string more than a few phases together without knocking the ball, and seemed to commit every unforced error on the bingo card, the English side certainly would have felt they should have gotten a lot more out of the game.
SCHOOLBOY ERRORS
For the Bulls, the errors sometimes looked like schoolboy stuff, such as Sebastian de Klerk marking the ball in his 22, then passing to Willie le Roux to kick without tapping the ball, or lineout balls not going five metres.
There seemed to be no end to the comedy of errors that befell the Bulls.
And then there was the discipline. After the initial foray, the Bulls conceded a string of penalties that cost them dearly in the first half, and then even more in the second.
Jannes Kirsten and Sebastian de Klerk were given their marching orders within minutes of each other as the penalty count topped 15 and the referee lost his patience with the visitors.
In Kirsten’s defence it was an accidental head clash with Rotimi Segun that saw him get yellow.
While the TMO intervened to tell Evans to have a “look at the actions of the attacking player”, Evans turned it around and penalised the opposite, sending Kirsten to the bin for the clash even though he had less than a second to react and was caught in an upright position.
These type of cards continue to blight rugby’s war on high hits, as often, and in this case, players have literally no time to adjust and it is just an accidental hit.
But until that changes, there will always be an unlucky player.
Segun, though, looked like a superstar with the way the Bulls failed to bring him under control and once the pack was nullified by Saracens’ breakdown prowess and their rush defence, the Bulls had little answer.
Given they have been preaching an expansive game, and perhaps the conditions didn’t favour it, it was ironic that their best forays upfield in the second half were from moving the ball wide, even though each and every one was upended by a handling error.
OUT OF SORTS
Still, the Bulls seem prone to these kind of nights where they look out of sorts and out of character.
But in a competition that rewards quality, they were far short of it on the night.
For the record, their only try came when on attack and a beauty of a left-hand skip pass from Willie le Roux overshot three defenders in the hands of De Klerk, who was the hardest working back on the night.
The Willie le Roux x Sebastian Klerk link-up is crisp 🤌
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) December 7, 2024
đź“ş Stream #InvestecChampionsCup on DStv: https://t.co/0P0NNhnwKw pic.twitter.com/o1lrNrzGOi
Saracens got their bonus point via tries by Rhys Carre and Tom Willis, both from close range, Jamie George from a rolling maul and Ben Earl in the corner while moonlighting on the wing.
And while they celebrated in the howling wind, the reality for the Bulls is while Loftus is a fortress, if they want to conquer the biggest club competition in the world, they still have a way to go.
Scorers
Saracens - tries: Rhys Carre, Tom Willis, Jamie George, Ben Earl. Conversions: Fergus Burke (2). Penalty: Burke.
Vodacom Bulls - try: Sebastian de Klerk.