The Bulls will now go into a 10-day break with their families in which they are going to ponder how to ensure the tough lessons of the last month are translated into a dominant run of form at home, according to stand-in head coach Chris Rossouw.
The Bulls ended a torrid 10 weeks mostly on the road with possibly their most disappointing result of all, losing 37-28 to Scarlets in a match they really should have won, especially considering their utter dominance in the second half.
‘Better than results have shown’
But the men from Pretoria botched three clearcut try-scoring opportunities and then an idiotic yellow card for a late tackle by wing David Kriel flipped the momentum of the game in the last 10 minutes, allowing Scarlets to finish strongly.
Read more: Scarlets edge Bulls in try-fest in Llanelli
“We are obviously very disappointed, but there were some good signs, especially from our dominance in the second half,” Rossouw said. “We are definitely a better team than our results have shown.
“The players can now meet their families again after what has been a tough journey the last two months. It will be a time to reflect and do some goal-setting.
“The team are in a good space, the second half against Scarlets showed that, and it’s just a chance to refresh and take the learnings from the last month and make sure we can build momentum at home.
“It’s difficult playing away from home, there’s definitely a different technical and tactical approach needed. You only learn from experience and it’s been an unbelievable experience the last month,” Rossouw said.
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As the cliché goes, you can’t buy experience and Rossouw was stressing the positives from a run of four successive away defeats in the United Rugby Championship.
‘Resilience’
“There’s a resilience in this team that is just not showing at the moment on the scoreboard,” Rossouw said. “They have shown that no matter the score, they can still come back.
“The way we dominated up front showed that, and we gave away minimal penalties, which is something we’ve worked a lot on. But not winning means there are errors we need to improve on.
“Not managing the exit zone or the kicking game properly is something we need to sort out, and playing away from home, you need to understand the conditions and how to manage the game.
“It’s not true that we can’t win away from Loftus though – we’ve had half-a-dozen away wins in the last couple of seasons. It’s a perception that’s not really accurate,” Rossouw said.
