The Bulls will now have a 10-day break with their families where they will consider how to ensure the hard lessons of the past month translate into dominant form at home, according to head coach Chris Chris. Rossouw.
The Bulls ended a typically torrid 10 weeks on the road with the most disappointing result of all, losing 37-28 to the Scarlets in a match they should have won, especially considering their dominance in the second half.
‘Better than the results show’
But the man from Pretoria botched three clearcut try-scoring opportunities and then a stupid yellow card for a late tackle by wing David Kriel flipped the game’s momentum in the last 10 minutes, allowing the Scarlets to finish strong.
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“We are obviously very disappointed, but there are some good signs, especially from the dominance in the second half,” said Rossouw. “We are definitely a better team than the results show.
“The players can now see their families again after the difficult journey of the last two months. This will be a time to reflect and set some goals.
“The team is in a good place, the second half against the Scarlets showed that, and this is just a chance to refresh and learn from last month and make sure we can build on the momentum at home.
“It is difficult to play away from home, there is always a different technical and tactical approach. You only learn from experience and it was an unbelievable experience last month,” said Rossouw.
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As the cliché goes, you can’t buy experience and Rossouw underlined the positives of United’s four successive Rugby Championship defeats.
‘Endurance’
“There’s a resilience in this team that isn’t showing on the scoreboard right now,” Rossouw said. “They have shown that no matter the score, they can come back.
“The way we dominate in front shows, and we give minimum penalties, which is what we have done. But not winning means there are errors we have to improve.
“Not managing the zone out or the kicking game properly is something we have to manage, and playing away from home, you have to know the situation and how to manage the game.
“It’s not true that we can’t win away from Loftus – we’ve won half a dozen in the last few seasons. That’s an inaccurate perception,” said Rossouw.