Why did the Bulls slipped so badly this year? They were downright poor and spiritless this year and that is a fact.
The problems started in the forward pack - where things went drastically wrong in -
* the Tight 5; and
* amongst the loosies
In the Tight 5 there were in reality totally unacceptable performances by Greyling and Matfield - with Marcel van der Merwe not being up to standard i9n scrumming in some games as well. The main two problem cases were the scenario involving the first two players.
The whole scenario as to the loose forwards were poor. Stegmann is a useless penalty-giver, Spies was a show-pony all around and was as ineffective as a number 8 could be and Botha showed zero as a loosie when he did play. The only one of their loosies who showed anything at all was Labuschagne. The latter was played as an opensider - while during his whole career thus far he played as a blindsider.
Then there was their backline. There halfbacks were at times good - their centers problematic because of the below-par performances by JJ Engelbrecht and the fact that Serfontein had injury problems. The result was that although Odendaal showed flair - he was not used where eh should have been - namely at 13. A further problem was that Hougaard - starting as a wing in earlier games - showed some zip[ and then in the latter part of the tournament got quieter and quieter. Kriel at full back played exceptionally well yesterday - but in the other tour matches he was quiet as well.
On paper the Bulls looks a good squad - in reality they were destroyed by five players - Greyling, Matfield, Stegmann, Spies and Engelbrecht. My bet is that poor selection was the key and that is likely to cause the demise of Ludeke as a coach. He should thank those five players for that likelihood.
