Bumbling Bulls left red-faced
Sat, 15 Mar 2008 12:50
Inspirational: Chris Latham tormented the Bulls
The Reds caused a major upset when they hammered an ordinary Bulls team 40-8 in a Super 14 clash in Brisbane on Saturday.
What a turnaround for the Reds! What a thrilling change for the home fans as fear burst into ecstasy! What a change to see a smiling, bright-eyed Reds captain instead of one mumbling his way through defeat!
The Reds were alert and gave every impression of enjoying themselves. They did every job they had to do with enthusiasm and they took every chance on offer. New captain, veteran Sam Cordingley described it afterwards as "one of Queensland's best in recent years".
What a disgrace for the Bulls! They gave every impression of disinterest, a team going through the motions. Five tries to one and that one was by their one player who really played and it came off a Reds' error.
The Reds played with heads up and bright eyes, the Bulls with dull soul.
One will not win playing against one plus 14. Fourie du Preez was the Bulls' one. Chris Latham was the Reds' one and he had 14 with him.
Head can beat Brawn, we know that, and Heart can beat Sulky Indifference. There were signs of it. It showed in the tackle, in the tackle/ruck and at the fifty-fifty ball. And it even showed in the scrums. The Reds did everything with enthusiasm and determination.
The Reds won the turnovers hands down at the break down. They had the men at the tackle and those men worked with might and main. They tackled better than the Bulls did. They hung onto the ball better than the Bulls did. JP Nel of the Bulls, a player of doubtful value, had two runs and lost the ball both times, once with the line close by and two unmarked men on his outside. They protected their ball and won the Bulls' ball. And late in the match they scrummed the Bulls to pieces. They certainly wanted to win more than the Bulls did and will go home with a spring in their step while the Bulls trudge out of Suncorp with drooping shoulders.
Is there somebody to pick them up?
The coach does not seem able to do so and the iconic players, Bryan Habana and Bakkies Botha, are not doing so. Botha was anonymous on the field in the second half and Bryan Habana was a liability throughout. His worst moment in his career surely was giving Clinton Schifcofske a try as he slouched back to a grubbered ball and then knocked it back over his goal-line to make sure that Schifcofske could score.
The man who sparked it for the Reds was Chris Latham, back to his genius best, whether on attack or defence. He was a man who could lift spirits and in recent times spirits have been low, low, low in Brisbane.
What did enthusiasm produce? Victory by 32 points as the Reds won the second half 27-5. It produced the first Reds' bonus point for tries since 2006 and their first ever at Suncorp. But above all it produced a new joy and confidence in a team that was being beaten down.
The Reds scored first and last. When Danie Rossouw was penalised for being off-side at a kick, Schifcofske made it 3-0. But then Derick Hougaard levelled the scores when young Poutasi Luafutu went off-side at a tackle/ruck.
After that the Bulls hit a patch of glorious opportunities when they could have sunk the Reds to the bottom of the Pacific. Instead they produced not a single point.
Latham stomped on the arm of Wikus van Heerden, prompting the referee to reverse the penalty and send the great fullback to the sin bin. The Bulls were playing against 14, the 14 without Latham.
The Bulls drove a maul and got close. When Morgan Turinui missed the ball as he tried to kick clear Akona Ndungane could have scored but knocked on. The Bulls mauled from a line-out and then Rossouw was close. The Bulls went right, left, right and Nel ignored the two men outside of him as he went for the line and lost the ball forward. Turned into points those were 35 points! What prodigality!
Don't score when you have such chances and defeat stares you in the face as your spirits drop time and again. And it started with Latham's try.
From a standing start off a bad pass Turinui barrelled past Rossouw and Gürthro Steenkamp. He gave the ball top Latham who came racing through and made a beeline for the posts. 10-3 after 32 minutes.
The Reds came back on the attack after winning a turnover off the Bulls and Rossouw tackled early for Schifcofske to make the score 13-3.
There was time for the Bulls to attack again but Nel lost the ball in a tackle.
The Bulls started with effective mauling but Van Heerden was free-kicked for holding on. From now on their mauling became weaker and weaker. The Reds found no difficulty in blocking it by producing a grounded heap in its path.
From a tap kick by Cordingley the Reds attacked and got to the line on their right. Back the ball came wide left Peter Hynes had no difficulty in scoring on a penalty advantage. Schifcofske converted, 20-3 after 43 minutes.
Soon after this, under pressure, big Van Humphreys threw a sloppy pass to his left. Du Preez picked it up and raced half the length of the field for a try. Hougaard missed a fairly straightforward conversion.
Hougaard was off soon afterwards with as gross an off-side at a tackle/ruck imaginable.
Then came that idiotic gift of a try. After the Reds had won a turnover off Rayno Gerber, young Charlie Fetoai slipped a grubber through. With Ndungane and Habana back in defence, it seemed an purposeless kick till Habana got involved. He dawdled back to the ball as Turinui gave chase. Then Habana fell on the ball and then Habana knocked it back over the goal-line where Schifcofske's dive beat Ndungane's dive to score. 25-8 after 52 minutes.
The Bulls attacked, tapped, bashed for the line and lost the ball, forward. They made a penalty into a five-metre line-out and did not look like getting over the line.
When Deon Stegmann went in the side Schifcofske made the score 28-8. The Bulls could have had three more but again opted for an attacking line-out which the Reds blocked easily.
Instead the Reds got a maul going and bashed before releasing the ball to the left. Back they came right and Quade Cooper chipped a sweet kick over the Bulls' single line of defence for Turinui to run through, collect the benign bounce and score the bonus-point try. 35-8 after 74 minutes.
There was time for one more as the Reds came back, Latham broke past Habana and Roe battered his way through four defenders to score a try which the deposed captain enjoyed.
Man of the Match: One Bulls candidate and lots of Reds candidates but our Man of the Match, the King of the Kids - Chris Latham.
Moment of the Match: For its sheer folly - Bryan Habana's contribution to Clinton Schifcofske's try.
Villain of the Match: There were two yellow cards. If silliness qualifies as villainy, the villains are Chris Latham and Derick Hougaard.
The scorers:
For the Reds:
Tries: Latham, Hynes, Schifcofske, Turinui, Roe.
Cons: Schifcofske 3
Pens: Schifcofske 3
For the Bulls:
Try: Du Preez
Pen: Hougaard
Teams:
Reds: 15 Chris Latham, 14 Clinton Schifcofske, 13 Morgan Turinui, 12 Charlie Fetoai, 11 Peter Hynes, 10 Quade Cooper, 9 Sam Cordingley (captain), 8 Leroy Houston, 7 Poutasi Luafutu, 6 John Roe, 5 James Horwill, 4 Van Humphries, 3 Dayna Edwards, 2 Sean Hardman, 1 Greg Holmes.
Replacements: 16 Stephen Moore, 17 Rodney Blake, 18 Ed O'Donoghue, 19 David Croft, 20 Ben Lucas, 21 Brando Va'aulu, 22 Scott
Higginbotham.
Bulls: 15 Morne Steyn, 14 Akona Ndungane, 13 JP Nel, 12 Wynand Olivier, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Derick Hougaard, 9 Fourie du Preez (captain), 8 Pedrie Wannenburg, 7 Wikus van Heerden, 6 Danie Rossouw, 5 Wilhelm Steenkamp, 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 Rayno Gerber, 2 Derick Kuün, 1 Gürthro Steenkamp.
Replacements: 16 James van der Walt, 17 Werner Kruger, 18 Dean Greyling, 19 Deon Stegmann, 20 Heini Adams, 21 Stephan Dippenaar, 22 Dewald Potgieter.
Referee: Lyndon Bray (New Zealand)
Touch judges: Chris Pollock (New Zealand), Stephen Hill (Australia)
Television match official: Geoff Acton (Australia)
Assessor: Andrew Cole (Australia)
