Bulls v Saracens: Five takeaways from the Champions Cup clash as Springboks hopefuls overwhelm English champions

James While
Add as a preferred source on Google
Back-row Elrigh Louw for the Bulls.

Back-row Elrigh Louw for the Bulls.

Following a 27-16 victory for the Bulls over Saracens in Pretoria on Saturday, here’s our five takeaways from the Champions Cup clash.

The top line

Make no mistake about it, English champions Saracens are close to crisis point as once again they simply failed to perform in one of their bigger matches of the season. Put simply, the Bulls out thought, out attacked and out defended their visitors, whose indiscipline simply prevented them getting any form of position in this match. The Bulls’ scrum and breakdown bossed the game all evening, and with the pace they have in their backline they are a real force to be reckoned with in this year’s Champions Cup.

Tries from David Kreil, Janko Swanepoel and Canan Moodie (with a couple of others chalked off for forward passes) delighted the Pretorian faithful, although a late rally by the visitors, with Theo McFarland and Elliot Daly crossing over for consolation tries, saw the scoreline retain some degree of respectability.

But by then the damage had been done and, had the Bulls been a tad more efficient early on, we may have seen an even more impressive result for the Bulls than the final score of 27-16.

Trio of treats

Jake White has taken the traditional power of the Bulls and bolted on a level of pace and attacking mindset that’s elevated his team into a particularly impressive outset. At the centre of his plans are two trios of excellence: the incredible back three of Canan Moodie, Kurt-Lee Arendse and Willie le Roux, and up front, a mobile and intelligent back-row of Marco van Staden, Cameron Hanekom and Elrigh Louw.

That back-row completely out thought the plodding Sarries trio; faster onto ruck chances, quicker onto the loose ball and far more intelligent in evading the contact that the visitors craved to create.

Louw in particular led from the front and, alongside the emerging Hanekom, did his Springboks chances no harm. It was the flanker’s work in the second minute that created the opening try for centre David Kriel and, alongside Van Stadan and latterly, Marcell Coetzee, the Bulls man was outstanding all night.

With the back three thriving on overhit kicks and mistimed punts, it was a day where both of these Bulls units dominated the match and their superiority was the platform which created the foundation for a memorable night for the Pretorian faithful.

Little things

Notwithstanding the patently ridiculous yellow card dished out to Alex Goode, seemingly punished for the outrageously cynical offence of standing completely still on a rugby pitch, Saracens simply got so many little things wrong – easy outs to any form of momentum they tried to build.

All of the traditional values of Saracen rugby fell apart in the altitude of Pretoria – spiral bombs overshot their chasing targets by some distance as kickers misjudged the effect of the atmosphere.

Whether it be squint throws at lineouts, technical engagement offences at scrum time, or simply falling off tackle after tackle, a lot of the punishment they received in this match was self-inflicted. None more so than Maro Itoje’s cynical attempt to knock the ball out of the scrum-half’s hand under posts that saw a second, and rather more credible, sin-binning. However, to blame Sarries fully for these errors is to denude the way the hosts pressured them, from the power they displayed in scrum time to the intellect of their back three.

A lot of this was down to the pace with which the Bulls attacked and, in particular, their ability to get the ball swiftly out of contact and away, thus neutering any ideas that Saracens may have had of drawing them into an arm wrestle.

In short, it was a game in which the visitors lost their footing early on and failed to get any form of toehold in thereafter. To add insult to injury, Billy Vunipola’s attempted clearout of a ruck in the second half has to rank amongst the dullest plays of his fading career and he rightly saw a red card.

Farrell reception

Let’s be honest, the South African postal service will never collapse under the weight of Christmas cards sent from the Republic to the home address of O.A.O. Farrell Esq and he received a predictable welcome from the Pretorian crowd, who took particularly delight in booing every goal kick and every movement the England fly-half made.

But they need to thank him as it was his rustiness and misjudgement of the conditions that kept the brilliant Bulls back three in business as kick after kick ended up too long into the backfield. It cost Saracens time and time again, with Arendse, Willie le Roux and Canan Moodie tore Sarries to shreds on numerous occasions.

But it was Goode’s speculative grubber, gathered by David Kriel, that saw the best moment of the match early in the second half, as the eager Bulls backs returned some 70 metres down the pitch courtesy of Arendse and then the brilliant Moodie to sear down the right touchline and evade Farrell to score the Bulls’ third try.

There’s nothing wrong with using a kicking strategy at altitude but, if you’re going to do so, it’s worth understanding the local conditions before you execute it.

Implications

This four-point win sees the Bulls move into second place in Pool 1 with Bordeaux-Begles topping the log after their disposal of Connacht in Galway on Friday night. In a highly competitive group, and with Lyon and Bristol playing after this match, it means that Jake White’s team have a cushion to take with them into their next three fixtures, and barring some very strange results, they look confident of qualifying.

But for the most successful side in Europe over the last decade, Saracens, they have no gimmes moving forward and with matches against Connacht, Lyon and UBB to come, there’s a serious chance that the great English club may well struggle to get out of this group.

It underlines that all is not well with the men in black; they look sluggish, lacking penetration in midfield and spike around contact. It is always the case with Sarries that they tend to be slow starters but this season their early form has been rather nearer glacial than just slow. It might go right down to the wire, and if it does, Sarries might want to thank Theo Dan for his brilliant turnover in the 80th minute that denied the Bulls their bonus-point win.

READ MORE: Springboks flyer Kurt-Lee Arendse stars as Bulls dominate 14-man Saracens

Bulls