Waratahs beat Bulls in Pretoria

By LIAM DEL CARME - WARATAHS 51 BULLS 19

What's that saying about taking a horse to water?

McNeil Hendricks provided a wicked spin to the snide line on Saturday by confirming a long-held suspicion that you can indeed take a Bull beyond the tryline but you still can't make him score.

Hendricks's glaring omission with the Waratahs' in-goal area at his mercy was not the only moment in which the Bulls lost the plot, but then again, cynics will ask if they were ever in possession of the grand scheme.

As a yardstick, this match won't do much for the Waratahs' burgeoning reputation in the Vodacom Super 12 but with three straight wins they have helped themselves to a near dream start away from home.

They have beaten the Chiefs, the Stormers and now the Bulls on their travels - admittedly none of these being championship contenders - but should they not experience a similar dip in form to the one they had last year, Bob Dwyer's team will be in the running for the knock-out stages of the competition.

On Saturday they were aided in no small part by the Bulls' lack of direction, cohesion and perhaps most damning, a discernable plan.

The Bulls were competitive enough in the line-outs, primarily through the efforts of Victor Matfield, as well as the scrums but when it came to the pressing matter of posing questions to the Waratahs' defence, the Bulls had their tongues in a knot. Inside centre Adrian Jacobs looked the most likely quiz master and although his midfield break and subsequent grubber led to a try for left wing Wylie Human, the Springbok incumbent's tackling presented guilt-edged opportunities at the other end.

The only way the Bulls were going to strangle the Waratahs out of this match was by dominating up front and controlling the ball for long passages.

The problem is that the Waratahs have the likes of Phil Waugh, Patricio Noriega, David Lyons and Rod Moore to neutralise that potential threat, but in truth, even if the Bulls had gained the forward ascendancy, would they really have controlled the ball for sustained periods?

The Waratahs, however, have announced themselves as a slick, efficient outfit. Their speed to the breakdown and support play was simply out of the top drawer, while the Bulls were tardy and at times even a little disorganised when the ball went to ground.

But just to prove that they don't invest all their time and energy in building phases, the tourists scored three tries from first phase possession.

On the first two occasions wing Marc Stcherbina finished off in the left hand corner, while Matt Burke rounded off the third but the Waratahs clearly underlined that tries off set phase ball should no longer be considered a rarity.

Fleet-footed operators like Burke, Mat Rogers and Scott Staniforth will allow a team like the Waratahs to exploit cumbersome defences off set play and the Bulls will continue to leak points that way if they fail to address their first time tackling.

Mind you, there are a number of other areas they should address while they're at it.

- INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS (SOUTH AFRICA)