To illustrate what has happened to the Bulls since winning their last championship in 2010, one only needs to look at their dwindling crowd numbers.
In 2013, the Bulls averaged 24,619 fans per home game. That figure dropped to a measly 16,434 in 2014 – a 33% decrease.
The picture looks even worse when we consider that in 2007 more than one million fans came through the turnstiles at Loftus. Only 427,000 bothered in 2014.
The Bulls have work to do. They simply need to win again if they want to put the bums in seats. 2014 was slated as the rebuilding year but injuries and poor recruitment put a quick stop to that.
Bulls in Sydney 2014 – they have to learn to win again
2014 Recap
The Bulls finished ninth in 2014, beating semi-finalists, the Sharks, and the Brumbies on the way. Not bad considering how thin their roster was.
From a stats point of view they had the highest line out success rate in the tournament, and fifth in scrummaging was not bad either.
Nobody ran the ball less than they did though and naturally they had the lowest numbers of line breaks. Only one team was worse in turning their own ball over which was odd because they wouldn’t have gone into many tackles with it.
2014 was expected to be tough after a number of players left the club at the end of 2013 but the job was made much harder with an almost laughable injury list.
Arno Botha 2013 – missed all of 2014
For example, a number of key players either missed the whole season or only played only a few rounds:
· Arno Botha, Pierre Spies, Deon Stegmann (the first choice back row) played only four games between them. Spies played in only one match and Botha missed the whole season.
· Flip vd Merwe – missed seven games
It got so bad that at one stage the Bulls were playing rookie locks as starting back rowers (it did however help them to top the league in line out steals.)
Fans were hardly surprised when forwards coach Victor Matfield laced up his boots for a comeback.
Key recruit Adriaan Strauss
2015 – Hit The Reset Button Again
The Bulls will look at 2015 to achieve the rebuilding goals they set for 2014 and will hope that their efforts aren’t disrupted by injury too much.
Player Gains
This is the most aggressive recruiting I can ever recall by the Pretoria franchise. They seemed to have learnt their lesson last year. These include:
Adriaan Strauss (Cheetahs), Lappies Labuschagne (Cheetahs), Trevor Nyakane (Cheetahs), Jamba Ulengo (Sevens), Jesse Kriel (Junior SA)*
* Cracking youngster. Can play in a number of positions. Look out for him.
Jesse Kriel – Junior Boks 2014 – look out for this cracking youngster .
Returning from Injury
Pierre Spies – he has his detractors but the Bulls really missed him last year. Losing the other options at 8, didn’t help. After Arno Botha was injured, the backups were awful. They even started a lock at 8 in the last few rounds.
Arno Botha – in my view the most exciting young back rower in South Africa, until he got injured. This guy is a machine in the Duane Vermeulen mode.
Player losses
These include: Louis Fouché (Japan), Frik Kirsten (retired), Bongi Mbonambi (Stormers), Jono Ross (Stade Français), Paul Willemse * (Grenoble)
* The biggest loss – How could they let this monster of a kid go? A definite blunder. He has Bok potential at no. 4.
Handre Pollard – will Ludeke let him loose?
Biggest Question Marks
Will Coach Ludeke allow Handre Pollard to play his natural running game and accommodate his preference to play flat to the line? There is some hope that Ludeke will have the Bulls playing a more balanced game. Spies is on record as saying:
We want to put some speed on the ball, we want a lot more of a running game, we want to put a lot more running metres on our legs.
Who will occupy the no 4 jersey, assuming that Flip vd Merwe will be used sparingly?
Will injuries force Victor Matfield to start in more than the expected handful of games?
Best XV
Forwards: 1.Trevor Nyakane, 2. Adriaan Strauss, 3. Marcel vd Merwe*, 4. Flip vd Merwe / Jacques du Plessis, 5. Jacques du Plessis / Victor Matfield, 6. Arno Botha, 7. Deon Stegmann, 8. Pierre Spies
Backs: 9. François Hougaard, 10. Handre Pollard, 11. Bjorn Basson, 12. Jan Serfontein, 13. JJ Engelbrecht, 14. Akona Ndungane, 15. Jesse Kriel / Ulrich Beyers.
* makes an all-Bok front row
Predicted Finish
7th – losing out because of a lack of bonus points. Again.
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