Assistant coach Neil de Bruin is stripping fear out of the Bulls’ game plan and pushing the club to play more rugby from deep as well as back their instincts under pressure.
In a wide-ranging interview with RugbyPass, De Bruin explained how he wants the Herd to embrace the kind of attacking rugby he championed during his time with the Lions, where the mantra was simple: score tries, don’t settle for penalties.
Central to that shift is how he manages senior playmakers like Handré Pollard and Willie le Roux, giving them structure to work within rather than trying to reinvent players with close to two decades of professional rugby between them.
“I’m not going to teach Willie how to attack. It’s about putting him in positions. And still being hard on him,” De Bruin said.
“I’m 40, and it’s easy as a young coach to go, ‘he’s won two World Cups, if he turns his shoulders and passes, I’ll leave it’. But I can’t be like that. I’ve got to be the same with him as I am with Keagan Johannes.
“Players, they see through that. There will be critique, criticism and tons of praise. My dad always said to me, ‘catch people doing things right’. That’s the way I coach.”
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No URC side scored more tries than the Bulls last season (92), and none ran in more five-pointers from inside their own 22, with De Bruin adding: “I like playing from deep – that’s where the most space is, where the line speed is the slowest.
“The rewards can be endless, if you can just get the fear of your own tryline out of the back of your head.”
Johan Ackermann’s Bulls kick off their 2026-27 season with a URC clash against Zebre in Italy next Saturday, followed by a trip to Limerick to face Munster, before four successive home games at Loftus that includes a 17 October visit from French giants Stade Français in the Investec Champions Cup pool stage.
Photo: INPHO/Ryan Byrne
The post Bulls coach not teaching Willie how to attack appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Assistant coach Neil de Bruin is stripping fear out of the Bulls’ game plan and pushing the club to play more rugby from deep as well as back their instincts under pressure.
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