Bulls banking on Jaguares’ ill-discipline
The Jaguares hold the worst disciplinary record in the competition having conceded 128 penalties to date, a monumental eight yellow cards and two red cards.
|||For all the threat that the Jaguares pose with their depth of international talent and experience, they have been the architects of their own demise and have ultimately seen their Super Rugby campaign go up in smoke because of their lack of discipline.
While the Jaguares have been combative when required and have shown glimpses of playing good rugby with ball in hand, their downfall and Achilles' heel throughout the competition has been their willingness to give away silly penalties and conceded unnecessary yellow and red cards.
The South Americans hold the worst disciplinary record in the competition having conceded 128 penalties to date, a monumental eight yellow cards and two red cards.
It is their overzealousness in the rucks and on defence that the Bulls will be targeting and hoping to exploit as they go in search of a crucial win that will get their campaign back on track.
Even though many teams have struggled to put away the Jaguares, especially in Buenos Aires, Bulls coach Nollis Marais feels that the Argentineans' ill-discipline could play into their hands and gift them victory.
“I know they have discipline issues and, hopefully, Craig (Joubert) will see that as well. They’ve been having discipline issues throughout the competition and even in their national team when they played against France that was the same,†said Marais.
Marais is pinning his hopes on the Jaguares players losing their cool again especially at the points of breakdown which has seen the Bulls go into the game with two fetchers in Roelof Smit, pictured, and Lappies Labuschagne in their starting line-up.
Smit has seen little game time in Super Rugby and has been sparingly used off the bench but his speed at getting to the rucks and the mongrel in him will force the Jaguares to flood the breakdown where they will probably concede penalties that the Bulls can slot over.
At the same time Marais wants his new look team to play with a higher level of intensity and not just rely solely on pouncing on the Jaguares mistakes.
Besides Smit getting a rare starting berth, Marais has also been forced into making changes to his pack because of injuries, with former Springbok hooker Bandise Maku also making a rare start in place of regular captain Adriaan Strauss, who has been rested.
The lanky and talented Marvin Orie replaces RG Snyman in the second row and will partner the abrasive Jason Jenkins, while Labuschagne switches position from open side to blind side flank in place of Jannes Kirsten who drops to the bench.
Springbok scrumhalf Rudy Paige returns to the starting line-up after having to watch Piet van Zyl orchestrate matters in games leading up to the June international break and Burger Odendaal comes in for the injured Jan Serfontein at inside centre.
Bulls STARTING XV: SP Marais, Travis Ismaiel, Jesse Kriel, Burger Odendaal, Jamba Ulengo, Francois Brummer, Rudy Paige, Arno Botha, Lappies Labuschagne (captain), Roelof Smit, Marvin Orie, Jason Jenkins, Marcel van der Merwe, Bandise Maku, Lizo Gqoboka; Replacements: Jaco Visagie, Pierre Schoeman, Werner Kruger, Jannes Kirsten, Renaldo Bothma, Piet van Zyl, Tian Schoeman, Dries Swanepoel - The Star