Bulls determined to bounce back against Jaguares

Editor

Bulls head coach Nollis Marais is determined to turn his side’s fortunes around after a disappointing start to their 2017 campaign.

The three-time champions have won just one out of their six matches so far and are currently languishing in third place on the Africa Conference 1 table, a whopping 20 points adrift of the Stormers, who top the standings.

Marais admitted that his entire team needed to play better if they wanted to return to the victory trail and did not want to single out senior players for his team’s poor form.

“At the moment as a team we are not gelling properly,” he told Supersport.

“You can go down the list and look at individuals but I wouldn’t say that. I think everyone is trying but they are making mistakes and it is costing us at the moment. I wouldn’t go to certain individuals or certain players.

“I think as a team we are making too many mistakes.”

Marais described his side’s 21-20 loss to the Sunwolves as “a horrible game of rugby” and is happy to be back in Pretoria where they will face the Jaguares on Saturday.

“I’ll admit, Saturday must have been the worst Super Rugby game that I had ever watched. It wasn’t the way we wanted to play, it wasn’t what we planned,” he added.

“We were put under pressure, the Sunwolves came off the line and we fell back into box kick. That shouldn’t be the case. I think we played well against the Chiefs for 60 minutes and we should have continued on that path.

“The players know exactly what we need. I don’t think we are moving away from our strengths but Saturday was not a very good match and it is good to be back home and to put certain things in place, but that was a horrible game of rugby.”