Bulls v Munster: Five takeaways as Springboks star is ‘saved by the bunker’ while Irish province a ‘different beast’ with Jack Crowley
Bulls lock Ruan Nortje (Credit INPHO/Ryan Byrne/EPCR) and Munster fly-half Jack Crowley. (Credit INPHO/Nick Elliott/EPCR)
Following the Bulls’ 34-31 victory over Munster at Loftus Versfeld, here are our five takeaways from the United Rugby Championship clash in Pretoria.
Top line
Johan Ackermann’s Bulls picked up five league points on Saturday, whilst Munster leave South Africa with two points after a spirited performance following a challenging week for the team.
The Irish province were humbled last weekend in Durban by the Sharks, but they put it all on the line at the imposing venue that is Loftus Versfeld.
Embrose Papier was the star of the show once again for the Bulls, grabbing a brace of tries, one in each half and either side of Canan Moodie’s try in the 34th minute. Meanwhile, Sean O’Brien scored Munster’s opening try in the 19th minute as the Bulls led 14-7 at the break.
Thomas Ahern closed the gap for the visitors after Papier’s second try, having scored before the scrum-half as well, before Cheswill Jooste scored a blinder before the hour mark.
Handre Pollard was on song off the tee, nailing all of his conversion attempts and a long-range penalty to give the Bulls a 31-19 buffer in the final quarter but Munster weren’t done yet, with Ben O’Connor scoring in the 66th minute to make it a five-point game.
Pollard’s penalty six minutes later extended the Bulls’ lead to eight but Edwin Edogbo crucially dotted down in the 74th minute to secure a second bonus point for the visitors.
What more can Embrose Papier do?
A question that only Rassie Erasmus and his Springboks staff know the answer to, as Embrose Papier continues to be overlooked despite being consistently brilliant for the Bulls and coming up with truly outrageous moments at crucial times in the game.
There have been some truly absurd solo tries scored at Loftus Versfeld over the years but Papier’s 29th-minute score was right up there with the best of the lot.
There really wasn’t much on when he pulled the ball out of the back of the maul, but when Ahern bought his dummy, the tiniest of opportunities arose, and the rapid scrum-half pounced. He left two more defenders in his dust and skinned JJ Hanrahan before darting over under the sticks.
He backed that up in the second half by being the quickest man on the park again, latching onto a smart kick by Ruan Vermaak on turnover ball and doubling his tally.
Papier earned all of his seven caps for the Boks in 2018, Erasmus’ first year in charge, but has hardly got a sniff of a recall since then.
He was invited to an alignment camp last year, but looking at the invitees this year, Papier is at best eighth in the pecking order behind Jaden Hendrikse, Grant Williams, Cobus Reinach, Haashim Pead, Morne van den Berg, Faf de Klerk and Herschel Jantjies [in no particular order]. To say that is an embarrassment of riches is a serious understatement.
Perhaps the Bok staff simply feel he ‘isn’t the right man’ for the team, with Erasmus previously stating that he doesn’t always pick the best men but the right ones. Perhaps his game management simply doesn’t stack up to the others, or it’s a stylistic choice. Papier may well know the reasons and work-ons that he must address, but that doesn’t make the snub any easier.
Munster saved by Bulls’ woefulness
After being battered 45-0 in Durban last weekend by the Sharks, there were signs that a similar losing margin was on the cards for Munster, but there were two crucial differences between the game on the coast and this clash on the Highveld.
The first was the Bulls coughing up opportunities and failing to make the most of their dominance, particularly in the scrums. More often than not, those errors were unforced and simple execution issues or overplaying their hands.
Both of Papier’s tries were opportunistic and moments of sheer brilliance, as was Jooste’s, with Moodie’s five-pointer being the odd one out where the Bulls managed to break down the Munster defence. Ackermann will be disappointed by the number of chances that were wasted through discipline in their skillset and a lack of patience.
The other key difference for Munster was the men in the nine and 10 jumpers, with the Irish province clearly being a different beast, with Craig Casey and Jack Crowley running the show. It’s plainly obvious why the duo are in the Ireland squad, and they repeatedly dragged their club back into this match, whether it was through brilliant attacking play or superb kicking accuracy.
Despite being battered at the scrum, Munster challenged the Bulls at the breakdown and were accurate in the lineout while also capitalising on the hosts’ inaccuracies and lacklustre defence. There are glaring holes in Munster’s game but they were ruthless on Saturday when they needed to be… but they were certainly aided by the Bulls’ woefulness.
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Ruan Nortje saved by the bunker
When Hollie Davidson blasted her whistle in the 20th minute of the game, Ruan Nortje knew he was in trouble as Munster hooker Diarmuid Barron lay sprawled on the Loftus Versfeld deck.
The replays provided proof that Nortje’s fears were justified as he had charged into the ruck, failed to get lower than Barron, and when the hooker popped up slightly, the Bulls lock clattered into his head.
Last November, this kind of incident would have likely resulted in a straight red card for Nortje, but World Rugby’s adjustment to the sending-off process after the controversy of the Autumn Nations Series means that the referee can only issue a permanent, straight red card for acts of thuggery, i.e, punching, biting, gouging, etc.
So Davidson followed the correct process by issuing the yellow card to Nortje and sending the incident to be reviewed by the foul play review officer [FPRO], and that’s who saved Nortje as it was judged that Barron’s late change of height resulted in the head-to-head contact.
Following World Rugby’s head contact process, the Bulls forward looked destined to see his yellow card upgraded to a 20-minute red.
World Rugby head contact process
As per the above, 1. There was head contact, 2. There was foul play, 3. It was a highly dangerous action – head-to-head contact, and Barron was forced off the pitch [red card].
The answer to number 4 was where Nortje was saved, and for two reasons. The FPRO that Nortje’s actions warranted mitigation as he was not ‘always-illegal’. He was going low, attempting a wrap, with the mitigation being a “sudden and significant drop or movement”, which was Barron’s slight pop-up.
Davidson briefly explained this just before the start of the second half, telling Casey: “The yellow card remains yellow because at the last-minute #2 comes up.”
Ultimately, the head contact process is a subjective methodology, and one can see how the FPRO reached that decision, whether you agree with it or not.
This kind of incident and outcome does come back to the Springboks coaching team’s complaints about the inexperience of the TMOs and FPROs in the game at the moment. The current trend of opponents sees the most experienced of officials being the ones with the whistle, whilst younger referees are deployed in the TMO and FPRO boxes.
It’s a real challenge as when referees decide to hang up their whistle, they aren’t interested in travelling around the world to sit in the box as a TMO, often earning less money. Perhaps there are virtual options that could be more tantalising for those experienced officials to keep them in the game that World Rugby could explore going forward.
Ultimately, Nortje will be relieved that he was able to return to the action, but only time will tell if the citing commissioner agrees with the FPRO’s decision or not, as the Bulls star could still face a sanction.
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Race to Eight
Having not qualified for the Investec Champions Cup round of 16 (they have dropped into the Challenge Cup where they are away to Exeter next weekend), this lower key competition can perhaps benefit Munster’s URC play-offs, even though they have a challenging run of fixtures ahead of them.
In mid-April they face Benetton before back-to-back inter-pro derbies against Ulster and Connacht, the latter in Galway, before hosting the Lions at Thomond Park.
At full-time in Pretoria, they sit in sixth-place overall with a single-point buffer over the Bulls but will be well aware of the fact that three of their four remaining fixture are against teams with a genuine opportunity of making the final eight.
At the time of writing, Ulster rank fourth, Connacht ninth (six points adrift of Munster) and the Lions eighth and three points behind, with all three teams having a game in hand.
Oval Insights ranked Munster’s probability of reaching the final eight at 78 per cent before the weekend’s action and whilst that rate will have dropped in defeat, they remain well placed to reach the knockout stages. However, for such a proud team, they will be targeting higher honours and to do achieve that, a home knockout may be crucial.
As for the Bulls, they missed a massive opportunity to move ahead of Saturday’s opponents by denying the travelling side any bonus points. Instead, they could well end the weekend outside of the top eight if the Lions and Connacht collect maximum points, the latter only moving ahead with a mammoth margin of victory.
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Unlike Munster, the Bulls remarkably reached the Champions Cup play-offs and face the daunting task of tackling the Glasgow Warriors at the Scotstoun in the last-16 before finishing their URC campaign against the Dragons and Scarlets away before home fixtures against Zebre and Benetton.
It is a favourable run of fixtures for the men from Pretoria as all of the teams they face in their final four of matches in the regular season have already fall out of the race for a place in the knockout stages and are essentially playing for pride.