Heineken, do you think there is any chance of Nollis Marais being replaced mid-season? Its not the SA way but.. damn. I get your frustration zt the 'Wolves getting away with murder at the breakdown but that shouldn't cause a loss. Not for a team who should be pushing hard for a play-off spot.
Not to rub salt in and I am hoping its not a fluke win but the Stormers had to deal with the Chiefs' shenanigans at the breakdown as well (I'm just glad Cane was unavailable!); particularly going past the ruck time after time and killing opportunities for quick recycling but credit to the ref he did at least ping both sides for side entry and had an otherwise good game. Think Wiese's binning was a good call in the context of the game and a rookie mistake from Wiese who started in only his 2nd SR game. We did go around that somewhat by trying to keep the ball alive and putting width on it, something the Bulls should have also done and they do have the caliber and strength in the backs to do so IMO. That's a coaching call though and I agree with your sentiments that they looked like there is no coaching. In fact I expect the team would be better served with the players playing off the cuff and backing their instincts.
I doubt that Marais will be fired mid-season. Contractual issues and all that. But I feel in a way sorry for him. The Bulls have had probably the worst schedule to start off with from all the teams. 6 out of 7 matches away from home. And unfortunately lost all of their away matches.
But we all know the Bulls are a different team at home. They were the only unbeaten team at home last year. I do however think that they will have a few more losses. There is just not enough in their tank to compete against the top teams this year.
Apart from Adriaan Strauss, all the players in the Bulls squad are 26 years or younger. So there is definitely a move in building a team. But with that said all our young guns are not performing.
Handre Pollard - Very Poor since his return from injury. Was sent home early from NZ and missed the Sunwolves game to work on his game.
RG Snyman - Trying to offload too much, keeps knocking on in the tackle. Doesn't compete on opposition lineouts. Even though he's 2.06m tall!
Warwick Gelant - Has been given very little opportunity, finally got his first start against the Sunwolves. But his decisionmaking was terrible. Trying to run back the ball without support is just stupid.
Jan Serfontein - Being overshadowed by Burger Odendaal at the moment. I didn't even know Serfontein was on the field on Saturday.
Trevor Nyakane - He's a bit of a liability on defence, and it seems like he's been given the instruction to not try and turn over the ball at the rucks.
My issue with the coaching is that whenever we slow down the game, it benefits the opposition. Our Scrumhalves, and especially Piet van Zyl takes forever to clear the ball from the ruck. By the time the ball is passed the defensive structures are already in place. But when we speed up the game, we seem to be much more attacking and we score tries. Unfortunately against the Sunwolves, we were our own enemy in knocking on the ball whenever we attacked in their 22.
The inexperience of the Ref and the TMO also didn't help. This had to be the first match this whole season where the TMO wasn't once used. And neither was there any reports of foul play from the TMO back to the referee. I mean, what is up with that? Utopia?? Plenty of high tackles went unnoticed from both teams. A lot of off the ball stuff. Yet, not a single action was taken.
