Bulls sweat over Smith's injury

The lack of clarity over the injury to tighthead prop Mornay Smith has the Vodacom Bulls sweating ahead of their next Vodacom United Rugby Championship derby against the Emirates Lions.

The Bulls suddenly find themselves under pressure after dominating the local rugby scene for the past two seasons, and the loss of Smit on Saturday hasn’t helped that cause.

Their horrific scrumming performance in Durban in December and then losing the match to the DHL Stormers this past weekend at the death has left them with one win out of five and rooted just above Zebre at the bottom of the table.

While it can be argued that the log isn’t really representative of the strength of the competition at the moment, the Bulls will also know they are only as good as their last game and, in that case, they have a lot of work to do.

The uncharacteristically poor first half that saw them slump to 18-0 down was more the cause of their demise last Saturday than anything else, as catch-up rugby always has the chance of backfiring and Jake White will be looking for a bigger response from his charges this weekend.

Still, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know the Bulls’ biggest headache was the loss of their tighthead in the first movement of the game, and with Jacques van Rooyen getting in a big workload, it isn’t hard to see where the Lions will target this coming weekend.

With Trevor Nyakane in France, the workload will come down to Robert Hunt, who has had a torrid time in the URC but looked a lot better in the Currie Cup last weekend.

The short and long answer for the Bulls at the moment is they have few other options, bar a bunch of young props that will have to fill in for them in an emergency.

Their CEO Edgar Rathbone has been open with his views that the Bulls aren’t likely to spend their way out of this at the moment, and the key would be in developing more local talent quicker, while still keeping a lookout on the horizon for any tighthead that may be looking for a new home.

The problem lies short term and while Van Rooyen did exceptionally well against World Cup winner Steven Kitshoff, the workload he had will test him this coming weekend against his old side.

And right now, the Bulls need every single point they can get to get their campaign back on track. While it is an away game for them, they will be relishing the prospect of grabbing a win away from home to get them back a bit up the table.

And to wipe away the disappointment of last weekend’s loss.

Still, when you step away from this weekend’s clash, there is a bit more worry about the ankle injury to Smith and how long he will be on the sidelines. The Bulls will be hoping he will be back sooner rather than later to help their campaign move forward.

The alternative is not a nice thought for White and co, and they will be desperate to avoid further injuries.

It may not be a full crisis just yet at Loftus, but you can see the confidence of the last few years has taken a dent. And they need a win this weekend to get them back on track.