Coetzee says Bulls must take care of the big moments against the Sharks

Bulls captain Marcel Coetzee wants better decision-making from his charges in the big moments when they take on the Sharks in the United Rugby Championship (URC) clash at Loftus Versfeld on Sunday.

The Bulls, who ended their tour of Europe with an impressive 44-22 win over Benetton in Italy last weekend, will be out to secure a second consecutive victory that may see them move to second spot on the standings.

“When you get two teams that have strong set pieces and their functioning attacks, it will come down to big moments,” Coetzee said as the Bulls prepared for a clash that has been strangely scheduled for Sunday.

“Hopefully we can identify those big moments in the game early on and not wait for the second half. Knowing the Sharks, they are a great set-piece side, you can see in their general shape and attack that they have a lot of variations and creativity.”

The Bulls lacked intensity in the first half against Benetton as they went into the break trailing on the scoreboard. They bounced back after the restart but Coetzee wants his team to start on the front foot against the Sharks.

“The biggest thing is you want to start well, you want to complement the plan you want to achieve on the day and just put pressure on them. We are playing at home but you can’t always rely on that — we have to show up.

“As the game progressed against Benetton we got a lot better but there are certain zones on the field where we need to improve. You are looking at your kickers to put the ball in the right areas, particularly your scrumhalf and flyhalf, and put the opposition under pressure.

“I think that is also the Sharks’ the gameplan — they don’t want to play their rugby in their 22 or 40m, they try to put pressure and get their maul game going.”

Coetzee travels to Japan after the Sharks match to join Kobelco Kobe Steelers. He believes the move will help improve his game.

“As a player you always want to develop certain things and you want to grow. I know from the last time playing in Japan that it’s very high tempo and you run a lot and that may be a good thing for my game.

“Obviously URC is getting bigger, tougher and quicker, especially when you play against Irish and some of the Scottish sides. When I came back from Japan the last time my skill set had really improved

“Going overseas you want to develop and come back a better player,” he said adding that his command of the language is not that good.

“If I come back after six months, maybe I can construct more than one sentence in Japanese. Moving there is a thing that came my way and I wanted to exploit it for old time’s sake but the positive thing is that I know I am coming back.

“It is not a feeling of going out of the country for years — I missed my country too much being at Ulster for five years. I will be coming back to the Bulls, my wife has found Pretoria as a home and it is an honour playing for the Bulls.

“You just want to enjoy every moment of it — home is where the heart is and it is definitely in Pretoria.”