Bulls headed for crash landing

Of all the scatterbrain schemes the decision by the Bulls to fly to Fiji for three games must take the cake.

In fact, there is something Quixotic about the way the Bulls have gone about their preparation under Phil Pretorius.

First there was that military recce in which the players were expected to prove that they could survive in the bush. They managed okay, but what we’re really hoping to see is not whether they can make a cup of water last for a day and eat grasshoppers but whether they can survive the Hurricane in Wellington, NZ, on March 3.

In fact, I’m told by a reliable source (a phrase meaning someone in the know who does not want anyone to know who he is for fear of later reprisals) that the real reason for Naka Drotske and Anton Leonard’s absence from the original Bulls squad was because, to keep up with the military theme, they went AWOL.

My informant tells me that Leonard, a policeman, said he had done this training as a rookie and had no need of it as a professional rugby player, while Drotske, quite rightly, pointed out that no amount of bundu bashing would tell Pretorius any more about his qualities as a rugby player than he already knew.

Next the Bulls decide to hive off to Fiji; the Sevens heaven of the world.

Why not? Sunshine, beaches, palm trees and, lest we forget, coconut tackles!

Please correct me if I am wrong. Is not South Africa’s biggest gripe about the Super 12 the debilitating effect of travel? So what do the Bulls do? They decide to fly to Fiji, which is further from here than Australia but, thankfully, not as far as New Zealand, for just 10 days. This at a time that medical experts have shown that jet lag is a bigger bogey to overcome than altitude.

It has been estimated that for every hour you change your clock, you need a day to recover. Afrikaners have a wonderful word for it; “vlugflouheid,” literally weak from flight.

What makes the Bulls wander lust even more incomprehensible is that they face the worst Super 12 draw possible with their first five matches away – in Durban, Wellington NZ, Sydney, Canberra and then, just to make sure they do not rise from the bottom of the log where, I predict, they will find themselves come late May, back to Dunedin in New Zealand’s South Island.

The organisers have kindly given the Bulls a bye to allow them to recover from the long trip home, but guess who they play in their first home game in Pretoria on April 8? The Crusaders that’s who - and you’ll need no reminding that Todd Blackadder and his tough men from Christchurch are the defending champions.

The Bulls were always going to have a tough time of it with such a draw, so why they decided to make it even harder by agreeing to go to Fiji defies comprehension.

Could it be that those officials in Pretoria who did not want Phil Pretorius are hanging him out to dry, or is just a case of amateurs still holding sway in what is meant to be a professional organisation?

I’m afraid for the Bulls the Super 12 won’t be won in March, April or May. It won’t be won at all.