Despite dominating the Stormers in the scrums, the Bulls are not getting carried away – and are wary of the Sharks pack in Saturday’s United Rugby Championship showdown in Pretoria (5pm start).
The starting front row of Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Johan Grobbelaar and Wilco Louw won a few early penalties in the set-piece, and they continued the onslaught when another Springbok in Gerhard Steenekamp replaced Wessels in the 26th minute.
Louw in particular made it a tough afternoon for Stormers No 1 Sti Sithole, but Steenekamp also largely got the edge over Bok stalwart Frans Malherbe.
“I think it was a good performance,” Steenekamp said in a typically understated fashion this week.
“I still think there are a few things that we can be better at. But as a forward pack, we scrummed very well at the weekend.
“We work together every week and chase each other, and try to make each other better. If there’s something I can help him (Wessels) with, or he helps me... and it’s the same with Wilco and Francois (Klopper), and through that, helping the union get better.”
The Sharks picked Ntuthuko Mchunu, Bongi Mbonambi and Trevor Nyakane in their front row on Thursday, with the likes of Ox Nche and Vincent Koch injured for Saturday’s clash at Loftus Versfeld.
So, the Pretoria outfit are well aware of their prowess upfront.
That is why the Bulls aren’t expecting to roll over the Durban side’s forwards this weekend.
“As soon as you think you are unbeatable, your hiding is on its way. A scrum is a very technical thing, and only the guys who have been in it will understand it,” Steenekamp said.
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“But in the one game, you can be on top, and if you’re not ready in the next game, you are going to go backwards.
“Last week’s scrum performance won’t help you at all for this week’s game. Every scrum on its own is a fight or whatever you want to call it.
“You have to be switched on for very scrum – otherwise you are going to quickly learn that you are not the best.
“They also have a very good scrum. We did our homework through the week, and we are working mostly on ourselves.
“Then we will see on the weekend if our plan is better than theirs. That’s all we can do: make sure we prepare hard enough, and then the game will take care of itself.”
The Bulls are still smarting from their 20-17 defeat to the Sharks at Kings Park in December, and nearly let it slip against the Stormers as well in the second half.
And if it wasn’t for a late missed conversion from the Capetonians, the Bulls would have continued their losing streak in the Mother City.
So, they will be hoping to produce another second-half display like they did in the 35-22 win over the Lions at Ellis Park a few weeks ago.
“Sometimes we give away too many penalties, especially penalty after penalty, and that lets teams into your 22,” said the 27-year-old Steenekamp, who has 11 Bok caps to his name.
“A team like the Stormers, once they get into your 22, it’s very hard to get them out.
“So, that’s one thing we will definitely work on, to make sure that we keep teams out of our 22 – not to give them easy entries with penalties after penalties.
“I also think that the Sharks capitalised where we didn’t (in December). So, you can’t go back on ifs and should haves.
“All we have is this weekend, and we have to do our best this weekend to try and fix what we did wrong there in Durban.
“There’s not a bigger or smaller game. The main thing is for us to get five points out of this game. Regardless of who they play or who we play, we need to get the win out of this game.”