Bulls and the Boks and the world cup

Springbok rugby fans would have watched last week’s corralling of the Bulls by the rampant Crusaders with a growing sense of foreboding.

The men from Pretoria barely pointed a horn in anger at the Kiwis, despite frustrated captain Victor Matfield exhorting them to at least attempt a stampede. Instead they were reduced to a bunch of bovine beasts by a Crusaders team that read their every attempted move and countered it with ease, while when the New Zealanders had the ball, the Bulls often tackled like milkmaids, nevermind cows.

Why should those outside of Pretoria care? Well, because that encounter could well be a microcosm of what is to come in the semi-finals of the Rugby World Cup in six months time, when the Bulls will contribute much of the Springbok starting line-up, while the Crusaders are masquerading as the All Blacks give or take four or five positions – and they are still to get Riche McCaw back from injury.

The projection of how the RWC draw will unfold is that the Boks and the Blacks will meet in a semi-final – providing the Boks beat Wales, Fiji, Samoa and Nambia to win their pool, and the Kiwis are similarly undefeated in their group.

That foreboding we spoke about stems from the reality that key members of the Boks’ starting line-up in that anticipated October play-off will be Bulls players and, even more significantly, the Boks will be playing the same game plan that looked sadly anachronistic against a Crusaders team that is ahead of time, not dwelling in bygone eras.

What worked in 2009, when the Boks’ kick-and-chase game beat the British Lions and won the Tri-Nations, will not necessarily work in 2011. The game has evolved. It has moved on with the law focuses and for the first time in history the signs are pointing towards a team that keeps the ball winning the Webb Ellis Cup.

The Boks won 15-6 in Paris in 2007 with the famous “strangulation” technique that with relative ease saw off opponents during the course of the tournament. There was no need to score a try in the final.

But in 2011, Super Rugby is showing that teams worthy of the RWC final need to have more than one sharpened arrow in their quiver.

The Crusaders have shown that they can play the physical game and in fact dominate teams that pride themselves in that department, ie the Bulls. And they then have the backs to annihilate anybody.

But can the Bulls play another way? No, not while dogmatic Victor Matfield is the captain. The stubborn veteran is set in his ways and he will continue to tell his team that it is not the game plan at fault but the execution of it.

Well last week, first-choice Boks such as Matfield, Bakkies Botha, Pierre Spies, Fourie du Preez and Morne Steyn looked like Bulls in need of a pasture to retire in, while contracted Bok Wynand Olivier’s defence against opposite number Sonny Bill Williams was disturbingly flimsy, although expected Bok No 12 starter Jean de Villiers will surely be much better, and we know No 13 Jaque Fourie will do the business. No worries there.

On the same weekend that the Bulls were humbled, the Stormers lost to a Reds side that more that matched them physically.

We know the Australian log leaders can run like the wind given the skill and the athletes in their team but at Newlands they chose a different, just as effective route, and they beat the Stormers at the physical game that prevailed for the Capetonians at Loftus Versfeld and Kings Park.

So we know the leading Kiwi and Aussies teams can play more than one style to get a result. But will the Boks be able to?