Bulls forwards need to sort out scrums, breakdowns against Zebre

Cape Town - Jake White admitted that the Bulls have their “backs to the wall” in the United Rugby Championship after going down to the Stormers and Sharks at their Loftus Versfeld ‘fortress’ recently.

They will hope to pick up the pieces of their campaign to reach the play-offs against Zebre in Parma tomorrow, and are favourites to see off the Italians, who have lost all seven of their matches.

Even the struggling Lions, who have won just two out of nine games, beat Zebre 38-26 at the Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi in September.

But in the 29-22 loss to the Sharks, the Bulls were their own worst enemy. As coach White lamented, they had numerous opportunities to secure victory, but wasted several scoring chances.

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So, the biggest challenge for the Pretoria side is for the forwards to finish their jobs. It is no use marching the opposition 40 metres backwards in a maul, but then not getting the touchdown.

Their ball-security at the back of those lineout drives need to improve significantly, while they were also on the wrong side of referee AJ Jacobs’ whistle.

“We ran 40-50 metres with the maul, and then never got any reward – I don’t understand. I think they gave about six, seven, eight or nine penalties (away) on their tryline. So, I’ve got to look and see how we got penalties against us, or turnovers against us,” White said after the Sharks match.

Welsh referee Adam Jones, 28, has been appointed for the Zebre-Bulls encounter, and how he interprets the breakdowns especially will be interesting to see after

White’s team battled to understand some of the calls on their European tour last year.

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