Following the Bulls’ 19-16 defeat to the Stormers in the latest South African derby, here’s how we scored Jake White’s men.
Bulls player ratings v Stormers
15 Devon Williams: Started off pretty well considering the conditions, but came up with a few errors late on which let the Stormers claw their way back into the ascendency. 5
14 Sebastian de Klerk: Starved of any real possession in attack, much like the rest of his backline. 5
13 Stedman Gans: Did well with what he was given, but wasn’t afforded a lot of time on the ball to really put his stamp on the game. 5
12 David Kriel: Kicked his goals when needed, but couldn’t really make much of an impact in attack with the conditions. 6
11 Canan Moodie: Withdrawn early into the game through injury. N/A
10 Willie le Roux: The fly-half experiment just doesn’t seem to be working as people would have hoped. Came up with a couple of poor pieces of play around the park and also copped a needless yellow card. 4
9 Embrose Papier: Did well considering the conditions. Looked to play at tempo and distributed well out of a very messy ruck. Not a day for half-backs at all, but gave it a good go. 6
Back-row
8 Nizaam Carr: Classy performance as always. Made plenty of work for himself on both sides of the pitch and notably chipped in with some strong carries. 7
7 Reinhardt Ludwig: Got through heaps of work in every area of the game, and made himself a real nuisance in the breakdown. Decent captain’s knock from the Bulls skipper. 6
6 Marco van Staden: Fronted up well when called upon, however he was taken off just before half-time through injury. 5
Tight-five
5 JF van Heerden: Super physical in the tight, which played a key role in his side getting the better of their opposition in this department and just never shied away from doing the hard graft. 7
4 Cobus Wiese: Packed a punch on both sides of the ball, but was another one to leave prematurely due to injury. 5
3 Wilco Louw: Yet again scrummaged like an angry bull. He was always a solid scrummager, but he has taken things up a notch in recent weeks, and will likely be leaving Rassie Erasmus beaming ahead of the upcoming Test season. Managed to make some nice rumbles up the pitch ball-in-hand too. Picked a great time to drop a performance like this, with Boks counterpart Frans Malherbe on the opposition. 9
2 Johan Grobbelaar: Just a solid all-round shift in every area from the Boks hooker. Did well to get the lineout functioning in those conditions and helped glue the formidable front-row together. 8
1 Gerhard Steenekamp: Really formed a nice axis with Louw in the scrum, with the pair once again working in tandem to demolish the Stormers. 8
Replacements: The bench is becoming a hot topic in South African rugby, but the Bulls’ lot couldn’t channel the famed Boks bomb squad with a seriously impressive performance.
Ruan Vermaak and Mpilo Gumede do deserve some praise though. They, somehow, upped the physicality and brute force of the Bulls pack up-front and really asserted themselves on the game.
Replacement front-rowers Akker van der Merwe, Jan Hendrik Wessels and Francois Klopper had the unenviable task of replacing the starting unit, and whilst they were pretty tidy they couldn’t quite match the intensity of the starting unit.
In the backs, Zak Burger was fine without being spectacular and Keagan Johannes injected a new dynamic late on. Sergeal Petersen, who came on early into the game, probably have scored a 3 considering the repeated errors he made in the second-half which helped the Stormers fight their way back into the game.
Whilst it was by no means an awful performance from the bench, they just couldn’t get the Bulls over the line when the game was there for the taking. 5
Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/bulls-player-ratings-v-stormers-angry-bull-makes-springboks-point-while-willie-le-roux-experiment-fails-again
