VIDEO: Nomlomo reflects on 'fair' draw

AUDIO: The Bulls might have launched a fight-back of note to hold the Cheetahs to a draw, but their coach Phiwe Nomlomo admitted they lost their set-piece battle in Bloemfontein on Friday evening.

Two late tries by Aphiwe Dyantyi and a long-range penalty by Boeta Chamberlain brought the Bulls back into the game, but it was not enough to secure victory for Nomlomo's side.

Again the head coach of the Bulls was full of philosophical phrases in his explanation of his team's performance on the night while he also reminded everyone that the Cheetahs are the current Currie Cup champions.

"Each game has its own personality.

"We all know the Cheetahs are well-coached, they are at home in their own environment," he responded when asked about what went wrong.

"Yes, we didn’t get the success that we wanted from the scrums and a line-out perspective. That is something we are going to have to work on.

"In terms of the breakdown, I thought they were quite smart, they pushed the letter of the law there.

"They did it incredibly well because it seemed like they were within the laws so we will give it to them on that," he said, hinting that some of the breakdown situations might have bordered on illegal.

"They had a plan at the breakdown to slow us down and not allow us for the clean.

"It was frustrating because we knew it was going to happen and when it did, the people in charge felt like they were within the law, so kudos to them."

However, the coach again reiterated how valuable games like these are for his young side.

"Moments like this are priceless. We’ve got to remember the Cheetahs are the current champions, they are at home and we come here and get three points.

"That for us is a massive effort.

"There is a lot that went well for us, apart from the obvious stuff."

At one stage the Bulls conceded four tries within the space of 12 minutes, sparking speculation that his side lacked the necessary defensive efforts on the night.

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"There are no issues. People must ask questions.

"We are a team that wants to score tries and from that perspective, we can also ask questions like have we scored enough?

"We have to learn to put teams away when we have the opportunity.

"And that will alleviate a lot of stress that we put on our D [defence]," he remarked.

"Today we made a lot more tackles than what we would’ve liked to have.

"The line-out was a lottery from both sides, scrum penalty there and scrum penalty here, from sides.

"Our scrums didn’t function, our line-outs didn’t function so it is scary for me.

"We scored crackers of tries, and so did they,"

Nomlomo conceded that a draw was probably a true reflection of the game.

"Maybe a draw was a fair assessment.

"We want to win games.

"And winning is a byproduct. Performance is the most important thing for us.

"We want to put out an 80-minute performance, but we haven’t been able to do that so that is still something we are striving to do.

"It is not just a player thing, it’s a team thing and we will look at it holistically."

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