There’s an old rugby saying that attack puts bums on seats and defence wins championships and never has that been more true than at the Vodacom Bulls right now.
Because while they went toe to toe with the defending Investec Champions’ Cup champions Bordeaux-Begles this past weekend, they came horribly unstuck thanks to disciplinary and defensive issues that proved very costly indeed.
The result is the side will now need to scramble to make the playoffs and losing home games can be fatal in the short pool phase of the tournament.
And it isn’t something new. While coach Johan Ackermann loves to play an attacking brand of rugby, and the Bulls did score a number of tries on Saturday, their defence has been atrocious this season, meaning they are having to score more and more points just to have a chance of winning.
The side have now lost four of their seven games in the season and while there may be an asterix for a number of those being overseas matches, their defence both home and away has been far less impressive than it should be.
Whether these are due to individual mistakes or collective system mistakes is still being debated, but the Bulls have now conceded 34 tries in seven games.
That’s bordering on five tries a match and as anyone with an interest in the game knows, if you concede close to five tries a match the chances of you coming out on the winning side are minimal.
On Saturday they conceded seven against a slick Bordeaux side, one which can put opposition sides away.
But this was Loftus Versfeld, supposedly the fortress the Bulls rely on and to concede 46 points there is simply not good enough.
Any team that wants to go far in any competition will know the bare minimum is to win your home games first.
To face the defending champions may have been a rough draw, but to concede 46 points at home, and score none in the second half is systematic of a team that is struggling with their own identity at the moment.
Part of these errors made sure they had to play catch-up and now with a tough outing against Northampton away where they were likely to send a second string outfit, the performance may need to provide the management with a rethink.
'HARD WORK AHEAD'
Ackermann said after the game the team had to play “catch up” the whole time and chase the game. And then things got worse in the second half.
“We started the second half poorly again and our discipline really cost us,” he said. “Too many penalties, the yellow cards – it all put us on the back foot.”
“We let it slip through our fingers because of a lack of discipline and individual errors. Our defence must sharpen up. There’s a lot of hard work ahead.”
“We look so good at moments, and then we look average. If you can score tries but keep leaking tries, you’re not going to win. That’s the frustrating part. The inconsistency in all our areas is challenging at the moment.
"There are quality players making mistakes. And that’s the thing — you saw in the past they didn’t make those mistakes. It must be frustrating for people on the outside because it’s frustrating for us.
“Like losing a kick-off, or we knock a ball, or we know they will come at the breakdown, but we don’t secure it, and then they get a turnover. Those small things have a high cost. Last week it happened against the Lions and this week it happened again.”
Ackermann’s frustration is shared by a lot of Bulls fans, but the core identity of the team needs to be to stop the flow of tries against them first. Because if that doesn’t happen they will never be able to dominate in the fashion they can.
Northampton may be too early to expect that to happen, but the response from the Bulls will be telling to see if they want to be a factor in Europe this season or not.