Bulls v Bristol: Five takeaways as Springbok-laden hosts ‘look lost at this level’ while Bears ‘put in a performance for the ages’
Bristol Bears winger Noah Heward celebrates after he scores a try (INPHO/Christiaan Kotze) and an inset of Bulls fly-half Handre Pollard (INPHO/Willem Loock/EPCR Rugby)
Following the Bristol Bears’ 61-49 victory over the Bulls in the Investec Champions Cup clash at Loftus Versfeld, here are our five takeaways.
The Top Line
Bristol Bears put in a performance for the ages as they went to Fortress Loftus Versfeld and demolished a loaded Bulls side in a fantastic romp of running rugby that saw 110 points scored in total, in a match that defined the phrase ‘end-to-end’ entertainment and saw the visitors record the fastest four-try bonus point in EPCR history.
The stats don’t tell the tale of just how good Bristol were up front – a dominant display at ruck and breakdown, coupled with some wonderful ambition from the Bristol forwards, saw them run in nine tries, a performance that defined the DNA of Pat Lam’s thrilling approach to rugby.
Noah Heward will take the plaudits in the back line – a brilliant hat-trick featuring what will undoubtedly be the finish of the season, but at the heart of everything was that Bristol forward effort, led by their tight five and orchestrated by a brilliant personal display by the criminally underrated Bears openside, Fitz Harding, who personified their pace and ambition.
For the Bulls, everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Their defensive effort, shocking in the first half, improved from 59% to leave a match total of 78% completion, but when you miss 30 tackles and make 17 unforced handling errors, you have no right to win an elite game of rugby.
To their credit, the Bulls showed ambition with ball in hand and were great value for their bonus point and seven high quality scores, and a fantastic last ten comeback that saw a few nails bitten on the Bears bench, but when you’re leaking so many scores and so many tackles at the other end of the pitch, something that the Bulls have done all season, the issues are clear but the solutions are looking harder and harder to find for Johan Ackermann and his charges as the picture of their season repeated itself once more.
Bears tight five heroes
The Bulls fielded a pack loaded with Springboks, ten of them in the starting XV, the sort of forward artillery that’s supposed to dominate visiting English sides at altitude in Pretoria, and yet Bristol’s tight five absolutely monstered them for eighty minutes.
Max Lahiff, Gabriel Oghre, George Kloska, Joe Batley and Pedro Rubiolo went toe-to-toe with Boks and won the battle comprehensively. The scrummaging was quick in and out, the Bears’ front row driving the hosts backwards, winning the collisions, securing the platform, and presenting fast ball that turned into Bristol’s relentless attacking tempo.
Oghre put in 12 tackles and made 13 carries, always a threat ball-in-hand, making yards and breaking tackles every time he got near the ball, his direct carry setting up the Ravouvou try that exposed the Bulls’ defensive shambles. Lahiff carried brilliantly before scoring a try himself, whilst Kloska’s effort was immense throughout. Batley and Rubiolo were everywhere at the breakdown, arriving early, cleaning out with ferocity, making some fifteen carries between them that punched holes in the defensive line, with Rubiolo crossing for a try of his own to cap off a dominant performance.
Then Ellis Genge came on and defined the word bull at the home of the Bulls, making trademark bruising carries, breaking lines, bouncing off tacklers, and showing the hosts what forward dominance actually looks like. Harding was brilliant in his offloading game and ruck work, taking on the Bok flankers and winning those battles with soft hands out of contact and ferocious breakdown efficiency.
When your Springbok-laden pack gets beaten by visiting Prem forwards at Loftus Versfeld, you’ve got serious problems that go way beyond coaching staff.
Bulls defence MIA
The hosts missed twenty-three tackles in the first half, twenty-three separate occasions where defenders lunged at Bristol runners and connected with nothing but air, their completion rate sitting at 59%, more of a collection of individuals hoping someone else makes the hit than any known defensive system.
Six tries conceded in the first twenty-five minutes, the visitors 40-14 up with barely a quarter gone, the fastest bonus point in Investec Champions Cup history and defenders were flailing whilst the Bears’ runners glided past untouched. The Ravouvou try told you everything, direct carry from Oghre, two dummy runners hit the midfield channel, the Pretorians bit in like they’d never seen the play before, pass out the back, and Ravouvou thundered over unopposed with acres of space and not a defender within ten metres. Under-12s stuff that no professional side should fall for.
The Marmion try later summed it up perfectly: four missed tackles in one passage of play, shoulders bouncing off nothing, arms grabbing at jerseys that were already gone, and suddenly it was 40-14 before most of the crowd had settled into their seats.
What’s actually happening here? We can’t work out if they’re playing a drift, a blitz or a moderated push, and there’s no doubt they don’t know either, which is the fundamental problem when you’ve got no defence coach drilling systems into players. There’s no one organising defensive shape, no one screaming at them to get shoulders square and wrap properly, no one holding them accountable when they make the wrong read, and the result is they’re as leaky as a sinking ship taking on water from every angle.
The URC side are defending reactively rather than proactively, chasing rather than shutting down, never in position when the Prem side attacked the space. It was, in short, the key difference between the sides.
Tempo
When defence is lacking shape, ruck speed kills the team, and the Bears identified that brilliantly from the opening whistle. Bristol’s pace of recycling killed the hosts; every single ruck turned into quick-ball that exposed the complete inability to reorganise defensively, the visitors hitting rucks, clearing out, presenting, and the ball already gone before the URC side had even formed a defensive line.
The accuracy and awareness at the breakdown were at a different level. Players hitting rucks at perfect angles, clearing out with precision, securing possession before the hosts had even arrived. Bristol looked like a side wanting to have fun, throwing the ball around with abandon, offloading out of contact, dummy runners hitting lines everywhere, carriers making half-breaks and keeping the ball alive, whilst the hosts looked like a side wondering when the pain would stop and who they were supposed to be tackling.
The home side managed to score seven tries themselves, so they weren’t completely suffocated, but every time Lam’s men had the ball the hosts lost the breakdown battle, conceded penalties like they were handing out flyers at a street corner, and never got the chance to reset or reorganise or even catch their breath. By the time the Bulls figured out where the threat was, the Bears had already moved the ball two phases further and found the gap they’d created three rucks earlier.
The potential turning point arrived just before half-time when the Bears went down to 14 men, the hosts kicked to the corner with the lineout and numerical advantage, but failed to execute in midfield, and Marmion intercepted, kicked downfield, and Noah Heward went the length of the right touchline to grab a first-half hat-trick. His second try had already treated everyone to one of the best finishes of the season as he self-levitated to touch down in the corner, defying physics and defensive pressure in equal measure, and now he’d turned a potential comeback into Bristol dominance before the break.
This is what happens when you’ve got no coaching depth and no defensive structure holding it together. The Bulls are supposed to be South African rugby royalty, Loftus Versfeld with its altitude and screaming locals, a forward factory that churns out Springboks, the sort of company that sits alongside Toulouse and Leicester and Auckland, but right now, they look lost at this level.
Pool 4 implications
Bristol’s demolition of the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld has blown Pool Four wide open, and with Bordeaux and Northampton playing tomorrow, one of those two sides will drop points, which makes things very interesting indeed.
Before kick-off today, the standings were Bordeaux and Northampton both sitting pretty on 10 points with two wins from two, Bristol on 9 points, whilst the Bulls, Scarlets and Pau were languishing at the bottom with 1, 1 and 0 points respectively.
With this bonus-point demolition job, Bristol move to 14 points, leapfrogging into first place and suddenly very much in the hunt for top spot in the pool. The Bulls remain on one point and are effectively eliminated from Round of 16 contention, their points difference now sitting at a catastrophic -84 after today’s humiliation.
Tomorrow’s Bordeaux versus Northampton clash becomes critical because one of them must lose, which means Bristol are guaranteed to be within touching distance of the pool leaders going into the final round. The Bears’ remaining fixture is at home against Bordeaux on January 18th, and if they win, they’re guaranteed a two-finish and a place in the Round of 16.
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