NSW Waratahs hoping to use Bulls’ reliance on Victor Matfield at lineout to own advantage
WARATAHS skipper Dave Dennis says they’ll seek to use Victor Matfield’s return to their advantage by targeting his dominant lineout presence.
WARATAHS skipper Dave Dennis says they’ll seek to use Victor Matfield’s return to their advantage on Saturday night by targeting his dominant lineout presence, and forcing the Bulls to turn to lesser-used options.
The plan to destabilise a central attacking platform of the Bulls comes as the Waratahs admitted they must use more variety in their attack, after run-and-gun tactics were stifled by the Force last weekend.
Having retired in 2011, Matfield returned to action this season as a player-coach after the Bulls lost a number of players to injury and offshore moves.
The 36-year-old — who will regain his record for most Bulls caps this weekend with a 124th appearance — has picked up where he left off in lineout mastery but has, if anything, been more relied upon in a side now missing the likes of Bakkies Botha, Pierre Spies and Dewalt Potgieter.
Matfield has called for a competition-high 42 takes of the Bulls’ 102 throws this season, and last weekend won 13 of 16 Bulls lineouts against the Highlanders.
“That’s something we have talked about this week. It gives you a clear indication in terms of defence and you aim to take him out of it to start with, and make them throw elsewhere,” said Dennis.
“In saying that I’d imagine a lot of teams would try to do that against him, and he’d still win ball. He’s a quality player.
“It’s incredible. We’ve been having a close look at the lineouts this week and he’s still just as good in that area as he has been, and he’s still getting around the park alright.”
The Bulls’ have been boosted by their other main lineout option, captain Flip Van de Merwe, being ruled fit to play after suffering an arm injury last week.
Dennis said after improvements in the last two games, he was confident the Waratahs set-piece could go head-to-head with the Bulls’ lineout and scrum.
The Tahs’ point of advantage is their running game but after failing to breach a defensive Force field last week, Dennis admitted his team may have to embrace more of the attacking pragmatism against the Bulls that saw NSW beat the Stormers in Cape Town a week earlier.
That was the only game this year where the Waratahs’ kicking metres out measured their running metres.
“If we have a chance to have a crack we will but we have to be smart about it. We will We have to get that balance, I think we did that well against the Stormers. We attacked and when we realised it wasn’t on we put it in the corners,” Dennis said.
“You saw last week that we had heaps of ball and ran it and they defended well. We weren’t good at having a bit of variation.
“I think where we’re good is unstructured play and running the ball.
“Off phase play if we’re running it a bit and it’s a bit too much and not getting us anywhere we have to acknowledge that and maybe put it behind the line and do something else with the ball.”
Dennis said the Tahs would, however, never abandon the “run first” instinct and would live or die by their attacking style.
“Cheik’s just said go for it and he’s happy to answer any questions at the end of the year if it hasn’t worked out,” he said.
“But as a group we’ve got a strong belief in what we’re doing and we feel if we play our style as well as we can, we’ll put a lot of teams under pressure and win more games than we’ll lose.”
Wycliff Palu was Friday night set to make a decision on whether he’d play in the Bulls clash, following a week off training due to his father’s death.
Stephen Hoiles is on standby for a bench spot.