Bulls v Edinburgh 28/9/24
Bullish or Bullied
If you are reading this, hello and welcome back. Thanks for sticking with the column and with Edinburgh Rugby because based on some of the feedback after the game against Leinster I thought I might be howling at the void.
Which, to be frank I found a little hard to understand. I want us to win obviously but this was Leinster we were playing and given our recent history in this fixture was there a genuine belief that we would win?
In hindsight does that belief or lack thereof live solely within the minds of the supporters? How many points equate to believing in yourself?
I shared my hopes for the game with my mate as we made our way into the ground and we were both on the same page. If offered we’d take a 2 BP loss as long as we stayed in the game.
We did that and I think we were pretty close to going one step further but it wasn’t to be. Some individual errors as well as some organisational ones did for our challenge on this occasion and I expect they will be occupying Sean Everitt’s thoughts.
This week we face a different if potentially equally tough challenge. Bulls record in the URC is enviable. Two finals, a quarter final and the final of the Rainbow Cup. No wins there though and if you were looking for some encouraging news our record against them is played 3 won 2. The one we lost was by a 33-31 scoreline. Spooky.
That loss in Pretoria was bookmarked by two things. Before the game even started Blair Kinghorn (remember him?) was due to start at 10 but was felled by a stomach bug and Jaco van der Walt (now at Bulls) was promoted from the bench. He lasted 12 minutes and was subbed with a concussion to be replaced by Charlie Savala who hadn’t even been in the original 23. Savala had a good game as I recall and scored our opening try after Bulls had opened up a 15 point lead.
The scoring then ebbed and flowed. There was a yellow card for Grant Gilchrist and a hat trick of tries for Darcy Graham. One of which you’d have to say was a try of the season contender. We edged ahead on 69 minutes with a Damien Hoyland try that was converted by Mark Bennett who had taken over kicking duties.
With 2 minutes to go Bulls regained the lead with a penalty from our frequent nemesis, Morne Steyn. Then with the clock in the red and the score at 33-31 we had a chance to win with a long range penalty. Unfortunately it had been a high tackle on Bennett that led to the penalty which had left him reeling so Henry Immelman (also now at Bulls) was pressed into action. He had the distance but it drifted wide and despite having scored 5 tries we had to settle for 2 bonus points. Sound familiar?
Whilst we have been negotiating pre-season and round 1 of the URC Bulls have been taking part in The Currie Cup. They made the semi final where they drew 40-40 against Sharks but failed to make the final as Sharks had scored more tries in the game so they progressed and won the tournament last week against Lions.
Bulls had a won 7, lost 2, drew 2 record in the competition and their top scorer had been the aforementioned van der Walt. Their top try scorer with 7 touchdowns was no.8 Celimpilo Gumede. Jaco will be lining up against us this weekend but Gumede is absent.
Their new season recruits were 2nd row/flanker Cobus Wiese who signed from Sale Sharks. Sintu Manjezi from Glasgow and winger Aphiwe Dyantyi who arrives from Sharks. Dyantyi is a 13 cap Springbok who has also had a spell at Lions but his longest ‘contract’ in rugby has been the 4 year ban for doping that he served between 2019-2023.
There was no real surprise when the squad for this mini SA tour was announced. It’s hugely disappointing and frankly worrying that Emiliano Boffelli is back on the injured list though. Hopefully this is one of those niggly things that crop up after a more significant injury has been sorted but when you look back at his profile over the last few years you have to wonder if he has just played too much rugby.
The following season he played a further 22 games. Last season he played all but one game in Argentina’s World Cup campaign before returning to us where his long term back injury caught up with him after our win against Cardiff in late April. Fingers crossed he can make a full (and early) recovery.
In terms of the touring squad I’d like to have seen Connor Boyle on the plane as specialist openside cover. I know there are alternates there but it means shoehorning someone and maybe disrupting the balance. According to match reports he was outstanding for Watsonians at the weekend.
The team itself.
This will be the second time that the van der Merwe’s will meet on field. The last time was when Edinburgh beat Sale Sharks in 2019. Understandably there’s been some chat about their respective scoring records. Akker, or to give him his Sunday name, Armand, does seem to have the edge on his younger brother but as Duhan said in an interview, “It’s all maul tries - they don’t really count.” Glasgow fans bigging up Johnny Matthews - take note.
Akker is captaining Bulls this weekend in the absence of their newly appointed co-captains Elrigh Louw and Ruan Nortje who are still with the Springboks.
Edinburgh’s forward pack is, with the ‘on tour’ injury to Ben Muncaster entirely as expected.
The halfback pairing not so much. I’m not going to dwell on this because there’s two possible explanations. One, it’s to suit a game plan or actually I’m not sure there is another explanation. I’ll just say this. Ben Vellacott was on field for 15 minutes last week and according to one stats source he made more yards and beat more defenders than anyone else in the blue and orange. Ali Price doesn’t feature in the top 20 of either of those statistics wherever you get them.
Even the naked and untrained eye might reflect on that game and be of the opinion that we looked more dangerous with Vellacott leading the charge.
The centre pairing of Matt Scott and Mark Bennett is not a new one obviously. They have played there together a number of times before Scott left. The last game being a win v Connacht in early 2020. The last time they both featured and both scored was against Kings when we hit them for 61 points at Murrayfield in January of that year. It was a memorable win because it put Edinburgh on the top of the PRO14 at the time. How could we forget that?
The bench doesn’t have a centre on it again (which was how it was last week before Boff’s injury) begging the question what if? I guess Ben Healy will come on if required but does Thompson then move to centre? Hopefully we won’t have to find out.
Bulls are without some of their Springbok contingent perhaps notably Kurt- Lee Arendse and the aforementioned Louw and Nortje but they do have Canan Moodie back as well as hooker Johan Grobbelaar who is on the bench.
Also on the bench is Marcell Coetzee who has caused us problem in the past whether it be for Ulster or Bulls.
I’ve already mentioned former Edinburgh man Jaco van der Walt and he starts for Bulls at 10 so that good penalty discipline we showed last week will be needed as we know how good he is off the tee. Our other former player Henry Immelman was injured prior to the Cuirrie Cup Semi final.
This week I’ll put it out there in advance. Another 2 bonus points and an overall decent performance and I won’t complain. A win of any stripe and the sound of Scottish rugby journos sitting up, taking notice and firing up their laptops to re-write their opinions will be deafening.
Maybe then we can all start to believe a little more.
I think that you read my mind or maybe it’s the other way around. Last week was a nearly, some mistakes and a spell in the 2nd half did for us. No 9 issue, Ben was great when he came on, but I think he is best as an impact player. I appreciate that Ali was trying but appeared slow and made a few mistakes. Hopefully the SRU can tap our cousins along the road again.
As for the next two weeks a win in one game and bonus points in the other. Wishful thinking? Cheers