The Vodacom Bulls put themselves in this position and only they can get themselves out of it.
That was the frank admission by Springbok and Bulls lock Ruan Nortje, who fronted up to media after the loss to the DHL Stormers that rocked their Vodacom United Rugby Championship campaign and placed a lot of pressure on the side ahead of Friday’s next outing at home against Cardiff.
Cardiff are above the Bulls, laying in fifth place to the Bulls’ eighth, and therefore can’t be taken lightly. And given the inconsistency in the way the Bulls have played this season, the pressure is building on them to stay in the top eight and make a decent run in with their final part of the season.
That all looked on track before Saturday - the Bulls had put together four straight wins, including dominant wins over the Lions and Sharks - but it came crashing down in 80 minutes where the Stormers dismantled them easily and could have won by more.
The Bulls can’t afford to lose any more games - they have Cardiff and Munster before heading to Glasgow for an Investec Champions’ Cup Round of 16 showdown with Franco Smith’s side - and then carry on with two games against Scarlets and Dragons on the road.
They then return for two final games against the Italian duo of Zebre Parma and Benetton before the playoffs begin.
None of these games should scare them, and they should start as favourites at home as well. But given their season since Johan Ackermann has taken over, the side are sitting with a 43 per cent win record so far under their new coach and can’t afford any more slip-ups.
At least the Bulls are honest about their own shortcomings, and Nortje has always been a player that has not shied away from the tough questions. That type of honesty is necessary, especially if they are to prove the Stormers loss is a blip and not a more symptomatic issue.
“We know we put ourselves in the situation we are in at the moment, so it's all up to us if we can handle that pressure, but I think we have a team more than capable of doing that. We know Cardiff is a quality team,” Nortje said.
“They are on the table where they are at the moment for a reason. They have a good quality side, good coaches, good systems in place, good defensive system, so we know we're going to have to be up for it. We will need to be much better than we were last weekend.”
Nortje admitted the side’s review of the game was brutal, and the lack of execution on their part is something the team spent a lot of time on. But in the end, the simplest answer was that the Stormers were more desperate, and they won the aerial battle and the scraps that are needed to turn broken play into points.
“The Stormers were so much more clinical than us. In those first 20 minutes, we had opportunity after opportunity, but we could not execute. The review was tough to watch.
“But when the Stormers got opportunities, they nailed it. They also got one over us in the kicking game — they were brilliant. They won the scraps 80 per cent of the time.
"In today’s game, that is where much of the game lies. The Stormers were very good in that department.”
So many parts of the Bulls game didn’t function - their scrum held firm until the changes came after halftime. The lineout lost three crucial balls and the maul defence was so poor that the Stormers milked penalties in that second half. It became a self-defeating circle for 80 minutes.
“As we said in our review, our standards weren’t good enough. Our quality in the jumping, lifting and throwing just wasn’t on par,” Nortjé said.
“We as players have to take that on ourselves – our preparation, our standards, our fundamentals. We know we have to be much better.
“If our set-piece is going well, we can be dangerous, so teams will always try to put us under pressure there. It’s up to us to prepare as well as we can and make sure we’re spot-on this weekend.”
Cardiff are a side that kick the most in the competition, therefore this weekend’s aerial battle will be massive. If the Bulls fail to win that, as they did against the Stormers, they may have a lot of problems on their hands.
“We know they’re one of the teams that kick the most in the competition, so that’s going to be a massive battle for us. We know we can be much better than we were last week, so that’s definitely going to be a big focus.”
The Bulls will name their team for the clash on Thursday.