Spiro Zavos heaps praise on the Reds following their impressive Super 14 victory over the Bulls - read his thoughts in the Sydney Morning Herald.
"An aphorism taken from The Art of War, a textbook of tactics and theories on how to wage war successfully written by Sun Tzu, a fourth-century BC military strategist, reads: "All battles are won before they are fought." On Saturday, the Queensland Reds coach Ewen McKenzie produced a game plan to defeat the frontrunning Bulls straight out of the Sun Tzu manual.
"The Bulls have bullied their way to the top of the Super 14 table. They rely on lineout steals by Victor Matfield to prevent sides mounting pressure on them inside their own half. They drive and maul from lineouts to force penalties. Their goal-kicker, Morne Steyn, consistently belts over penalties and conversions from all parts of the field. They kick a lot of high balls to force penalty shots or handling errors which their big forwards, Pierre Spies particularly, exploit with hard-shouldered, barging assaults.
"Until last Saturday, only the Blues had been able to crack this predictable but winning Bulls method. They did it by smashing the Bulls in the forwards. But with a relatively young pack containing no Test players, this tactic was not open to the Reds. Instead, they adopted a high-tempo, ball-in-hand method that involved running the Bulls into the ground. Kick-offs were received and then run out from the 22. High balls were caught and run back. Kicks were kept to a minimum - just 15 in the match."
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