In a game that came close to festival rugby the young and talented Bulls team won the inaugural Gauteng Rugby Cup at Orlando Stadium beating the Lions 38-32. The match lived up to the pre-match expectations of an exciting affair with 4 tries scored by both teams and only a couple of penalties separating the two sides in the end. Congratulations to the Bulls.
The match answered some questions but also asked a few more.
The Lions clearly still have a long way to go before they will be a competitive Super Rugby side, ready for the 2014 season, and one of the issues they need to address is their slow starts to games. For the second game in a row they allow their opponents to build up a substantial lead before they got back into the game. Playing catch-up rugby just isn’t the way to go.
A number of Lions players put their hands up and showed their class – Andries Coetzee broke a number of times and showed how dangerous he can be, Anthony Volminck stepped and ran as ellusively as any top wing and flanker Jaco Kriel looks ready to make a name for himself on the SA rugby stage.
The Bulls investment in young talented players over the last few years is starting to pay dividents but it leaves them with some issues. The biggest question about the Bulls side must be: how are they going to utilise the talent of youngsters like Jan Serfontein, Lionel Mapoe and Jurgen Visser with flyhalves like Morne Steyn and Louis Fouche? This young squad is the future of Bulls rugby but the Bulls will have to find a way to use their talent and not to turn them into Steyn, Olivier and Kirchner drones.
While the result may be disappointing for the Lions it probably gave the coaching staff more to work on than the easy wins of the first two games.
Next match:
9 Feb @ 14:15: Lions vs Southern Kings @ Ellis Park
