Bulls coach is a tough task master

Bulls coach Nollis Marais bucks the trend of the silent coaches who seem to be singing from the same hymn book.

There aren’t that many coaches going around that where their hearts on the sleeves and speak their mind.

The little of them that were around have either been silenced by the red tape and bureaucracy that governs Super Rugby these days or have moved on to lucrative jobs in Europe.

But Bulls coach Nollis Marais bucks the trend of the silent coaches who seem to be singing from the same hymn book.

Not only is Marais a tough task master who wants to bring back the old traditions of the game while striving to stay ahead of the pack when it comes to evolving their style of play, he has not been shy to speak his mind about the shortcomings of his team so far this season.

If it not the scrum then it is the lineout or the breakdown and now the talk around the capital is about the Bulls failure at finishing.

In their first game against the Stormers nothing seemed to work especially the scrums, lineouts and breakdowns and even though they showed great improvement against the Melbourne Rebels in the set-piece, the rucks were still an area of concern.

Last weekend against the Sunwolves in Singapore, the Bulls were able to dominate the game but not completely so as they lacked the killer instinct that should have seen them runaway with the game instead of narrowly escaping with a 30-27 win.

Marais is fed up and has called for his team to get their act together and put in an 80 minute performance against the Cheetahs on Saturday at Loftus Versfeld that will not only do their fans justice but also leave little doubt in the minds of their detractors about the potential of the team.

Marais has also decided to keep his pack of forwards intact in the hope that they will maintain the dominance they enjoyed against the Sunwolves but there could be a slight change at number eight with Arno Botha or Nic de Jager starting pending a late fitness test for replacement loose forward Lappies Labuschagne.

Bulls: Jesse Kriel, Travis Ismaiel, Jan Serfontein, Burger Odendaal, Jamba Ulengo, Tian Schoeman, Rudy Paige, Arno Botha/Nic de Jager, Jannes Kirsten, Roelof Smit, RG Snyman, Jason Jenkins, Marcel van der Merwe, Adriaan Strauss, Lizo Gqoboka. Replacements: Bandise Maku, Trevor Nyakane, Pierre Schoeman, Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg, Lappies Labuschagne, Ivan van Zyl, Francois Brummer, SP Marais. - The Mercury