Tame Lions’ surrender to brutal Bulls vexes coach
Defeat is a low point of his career at the franchise, De Bruin says
There was a palpable air of despair about the Lions after the Bulls thumped them 30-12 at Ellis Park in their Super Rugby clash on Saturday. Coach Swys de Bruin sighs more audibly than most and he was most displeased with the manner in which his team was bossed around and suffered a first home defeat in conference play in four years. “We have no excuses. We were outplayed by a much better team on the day‚” he vented. “We’ll have to go and work very hard to rectify our mistakes. They taught us a rugby lesson. We were outmuscled. For the first 24 minutes we didn’t have the ball. They suffocated us. It was almost like the old Bulls team that used their pack with brutality.” They certainly were. The Bulls made their bigger pack do all the heavy lifting. They were brutal in the collisions. They deprived the Lions of the ball in the first half‚ and they showed variety‚ especially in their use of the high ball. It left Lions wing Aphiwe Dyantyi clutching at straws. “We battled in the air‚”...
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