There are so many signs around Loftus Versfeld broadcasting that “altitude matters” you’d swear you were at a remedial school for bad pilots. They want to let you know all about the altitude though because the Bulls’ famous stadium sits 1350 metres above sea level and, like it or not, that does matter.
When you’re playing at altitude, some things are easier and some are harder. At a basic level, the air is “thinner” at 1350 metres. There are literally fewer “air molecules” at that elevation so, just at a base level, there is less air resistance on the ball so passes and kicks will travel further and fly faster than at sea level. That takes a bit of getting used to.
If the air is thinner, then any kind of physical exertion in that environment can produce symptoms like higher heart rates, high blood pressure, and even cognitive impairment where you’re not able to process information at the speed or quality that you would normally because you’re not able to take full breaths. “Thinner” air has less volume, so each breath you take is providing less oxygen to your bloodstream and, as a result, that means less oxygen for your muscles and even your brain. Essentially, you get blown up easier, for longer and you recover slower.
The Bulls are used to playing in these conditions and, while it’s not a complete stranger to Munster given this is our second time in Pretoria this season, it could well play a factor in this game as it goes deep into each half. The Bulls will certainly hope so, anyway.
This is a massive challenge for this Munster squad. Much like the South African teams who toured Europe earlier in the season without their internationals, there’s no escaping how challenging this game is going to be against a Bulls side that currently sit in a deceptive log position, given only three of their 10 games this season have been played at home. Now they’ve lost two of those home games – and we’ll look at those – but one look at their squad will give you an idea of how physically formidable they are. Combine that with the thin air, burning lungs and mid-summer weather, and the scale of the task reveals itself.
Bulls Rugby: 15. Kurt-Lee Arendse, 14. Cornal Hendricks, 13. Lionel Mapoe, 12. Harold Vorster, 11. Madosh Tambwe, 10. Chris Smith, 9. Embrose Papier 1. Gerhard Steenekamp, 2. Johan Grobbelaar, 3. Jacques van Rooyen, 4. Walt Steenkamp, 5. Ruan Nortje, 6. Marcell Coetzee, 7. Arno Botha, 8. Elrigh Louw
Replacements: 16. Bismarck du Plessis, 17. Simphiwe Matanzima, 18. Robert Hunt, 19. Janko Swanepoel, 20. WJ Steenkamp, 21. Zak Burger, 22. Morne Steyn, 23. Canan Moodie
The Bulls know who they are and what they are good at.
That alone is a very powerful thing to know. There is something of a cliche around what offensive South African rugby looks like. Direct, big runners, very little risk phase to phase and, to be fair, the Bulls are almost a perfect representation of that. Don’t confuse the kick pressure of the Springboks for everything South Africa have to offer because the Bulls don’t really play that at all. They are regularly outkicked by their opponents and when they rate the defensive ability of their opposition, their PPC rating will be anything between 1.00 and 1.2. Even against Zebre, arguably the weakest team in the URC this season, the Bulls only managed a 1.34 of 57% possession and 66% territory.
The Bulls will pass and they will offload, but only at short range OR through the backs if a compression is formed by their incredibly direct ball carrying. It’s not that they don’t kick the ball – they do – but in this game against an opposition they perceive to be weaker than them and unused to altitude, the Bulls will try to batter us off #9 as their primary means of Making Altitude Count.
Look at their pack – Coetzee, Louw, Botha, Grobbelaar, the Steenkamps, Nortje – that’s a pack that they will want to run into collisions with our pack to play the kind of Bully Ball that they have been built to play. It’s effective, punishing and it drains you. If it’s down to making big stops on a hard surface at altitude, we just can’t win that battle. The Bulls play this way to limit the risk that comes with playing a lot of on-ball rugby. It doesn’t actually limit the number of mistakes they make – they make more than their fair share – but the main principle of this style is to roll across the opposition defence and punish any weakness with a wall of big Bull runners.
But that comes with a weakness to breakdown jackals. Here’s an example of one of their most common post-scrum off #9 schemes along with a compilation of the kind of poaching windows they give you.
This has to be a key part of an arm’s length style of play for Munster in this game. We don’t want to engage the Bulls too often on phase play until later in the game so I’d back Healy and Scannell to play a “vertical” style of play here – kicking long and deep to the Bulls back three and challenging the Bulls transition defence. Really going after first couple of rucks after the return through Cloete and Kendellen primarily, and then De Allende and Hodnett and Kendellen later in the game can be a viable way to win kickable penalties and excellent driving opportunities down the line.
A good return for Munster will be a low PPC rating until post 60 minutes with a lot of kick variety to challenge the Bulls pack’s mobility. They want to smash us on both sides of the ball so in defence, we go low and poach and in attack, we deny them defensive contact until they’re giving us good spacing late in the first half and deep into the second half.
That’s a way to win it, for sure, but it’ll be very difficult.
