What former Bok coach NICK MALLETT had to say on SuperSport about the past weekend's Super Rugby matches involving South African teams.
Cheetahs vs Bulls
‘Both the Bulls and the Cheetahs have adopted this playing style of using the width of the field and playing off their halfbacks. But you still have to commit. If you just catch and pass the whole time, then the defence just shifts with the ball. You have to actually run at a defender and time your pass so that you fix the defender to stop him from going across. What was interesting is the Cheetahs’ philosophy to move the ball around until they could get their kicker into a good position to clear for touch.
‘The Cheetahs scored some excellent tries and were leading comfortably and then the Bulls had a really good comeback with a burst of two tries.
‘One of the key things we have to mention about this Cheetahs team is that Uzair Cassiem has been passing before taking contact and it’s so nice to see. He is a big, physical flank who takes the ball up a lot with pick and go's. But in the lead-up to the Cheetahs’ first try, he gets out to the wing and pops a lovely pass inside to Paul Schoeman before contact and allows them to get forward momentum. And Cassiem also threw that exquisite pass for one of Oupa Mohoje’s tries. I thought the Cheetahs were disrupted by Cassiem going off at half-time because of a knee injury.
‘We mentioned last week that the Cheetahs made a number of handling errors which cost them the game against the Lions. This weekend, their decision-making of when to pass and when not to pass were far better. The Bulls don’t have such a heavy pack and the Cheetahs moved the ball to different areas of the field that made it difficult for the Bulls to defend. If you run straight at a Bulls player, he will tackle you, but the Cheetahs were running good angles and passing just prior to making contact. The breakdown was always beyond the advantage line so every Bulls player had to retreat backwards to get in position as opposed to running forward with an offensive hit. And that is credit to Franco Smith’s attacking play that he brought into the Cheetahs set-up.
‘The Bulls are coming out of the line so quickly that no one is setting in as the first and second defender, which is why there is no organisation. They are on the back-foot all the time.
ALSO READ: Five takeaways from past weekend
‘It’s interesting that Handré Pollard has started both games for the Bulls and we know how good he is. But I imagine had he been a New Zealand player he would have played off the bench. They should have started with the guy who did well the whole of last year [Tian Schoeman], perhaps giving Pollard 20 minutes in his first game back and 40 minutes in the second match against the Cheetahs.
'But what really cost the Bulls were the 38 handling errors they made compared to 13 by the Cheetahs. That is three times as many handling errors. If you are going to try and play a ball-in-hand game, you better made sure to hold onto the ball. The Cheetahs were much better at doing that than the Bulls.
‘We’re focusing a bit too much on Pollard. We ought to focus on the Bulls pack. In both their games to date, the pack only got into the game in the last 20 minutes. For 60 minutes the backline didn’t really get much ball and Pollard was substituted after 60. I don’t care if you put Dan Carter behind a pack going back like that, he is not going to look like a good player. That’s where the Bulls problem lies and that’s what needs to be solved. The Bulls lost four lineouts against a Cheetahs team that we thought was supposed to be weak in the lineouts.
‘We can’t keep on saying it’s because they have pack of forwards. The Bulls need a prop, a fetcher and they are missing a creative loose forward. They have bashers in the loose trio as opposed to someone who can make the little passes, a linking player like Cassiem and Michael Hooper, and like Rob Louw was in the past. If the pack manages to get at least a tighthead prop so that they can win their own ball without collapsing and giving a penalty away, when we can start talking about the play of Rudy Paige and Pollard and compare them in a fair way. They can blame a bad start all they want, but it’s actually a lack of first-phase ball that is causing them all this trouble. Against the Stormers it was the scrums and against the Cheetahs it was the scrums and the lineouts.’
‘And it was interesting to see when Warrick Gelant came on, that the wingers Jamba Ulengo and Travis Ismaiel were far more prominent for the Bulls than prior to that. My feeling is that Jesse Kriel doesn’t get the best out of the wingers. To give Kriel credit, they didn’t have much possession. But even so Jesse and the two big centres that the Bulls utilise are not creative enough to create space for the outside backs. I thought they looked really good in the last 15 minutes with Gelant on the field, but it was too little too late.’
‘We were treated to some good wing play today. Ismaiel made one mistake with that little knock-on at the end. Ulengo was good under the high ball and very physical. But Raymond Rhule was unbelievable. He improved his tackling and is unrecognisable from the player he was two years ago. Wingers are not a problem in South Africa , so let’s not start putting our No 9s on the wing again.’
VIDEO: Highlights of Cheetahs vs Bulls
DHL Stormers vs Jaguares
‘From a Stormers point of view there were a lot of defensive weaknesses. There was a lot of physicality in that Jaguares side and the Stormers didn’t tackle them backwards, which allowed the visitors to get front-foot ball, especially later on in the game. The Stormers got both first-half tries with little kicks, one well-constructed but the other one fortunate because it came off the heel of Jano Vermaak. They have to learn to be better with offensive kicking. Offensive kicking is the secret against really strong defence.
‘The Stormers have a good offloading game, but 24 handling errors are just too many for a team wanting to get into the Super Rugby playoffs and to compete with New Zealand teams.
‘The Jaguares have this absolute determination not to allow a team to score from around the fringes of a ruck and they are prepared to do anything to stop it. We had a penalty try, and Santiago Iglesias came around the side and that could arguably have been another yellow card. And these are lessons they have to learn. Their discipline has to improve. Four yellow cards in two games are far too many.
‘The one positive they can take out of the game is the powerful ball carrying of the forwards that we saw against the Stormers. The two flankers, Tomás Lezana and Pablo Matera, were outstanding and the tight forwards carried well and ran good angles, like that brilliant run that set up Santiago Cordero’s second try. They really tested the Stormers defence in close. It was a much more physical affair for the Stormers.’
VIDEO: Highlights of Stormers vs Jaguares
Lions vs Waratahs
‘This was an incredibly loose game. You’re not going very far in the competition if you concede five tries, even if you score eight yourself. The Lions need to really tighten up on defence.
'Ross Cronjé deserved the Match of the Match award. He doesn’t have the most fantastic pass in the world, but he is a nugget, gritty player who makes defences concentrate because of his good step around the fringes and he tends to made good decisions with his passing under pressure.’
VIDEO: Highlights of Lions vs Waratahs
Round two wrap
‘South African teams were involved in some close and exciting games this weekend. What worries me is the New Zealand teams. There’s a big difference between us playing derbies against each other and then playing against a Kiwi side. We’ll only know where we are once we start playing against them.
‘In terms of the tournament, New Zealand teams still lead the way. But I think we’re ahead of Australian sides, who are really battling at the moment.’
*Note: Mallett did not comment on the games between the Brumbies and Sharks in Canberra and the Sunwolves and Kings in Singapore.
ALSO: Sharks, Cheetahs score big wins
Photo: Johan Pretorius/Gallo Images
