Cape Town - While the Bulls have made up some ground on the United Rugby Championship standings in recent weeks, they are still a considerable distance from becoming title contenders.
The loss to the Stormers at Loftus Versfeld on January 22 hurt the Pretoria side, as they produced a superb second-half comeback to lead 26-18 at one stage, only to go down 30-26 after a late Paul de Wet try.
So, gaining nine log points with consecutive victories over the Lions – 34-10 at Ellis Park and now 21-13 at Loftus on Saturday – was something coach Jake White said he would’ve taken if offered beforehand.
But the Bulls are still languishing in 12th position on 16 points, with the Stormers the top South African team in 10th place on 18 points following their 20-10 triumph over the Sharks, who are 11th with 16.
White has been able to make a number of quality signings over the past two years, and will hope to see a return on investment.
Unfortunately for him and the Bulls, some of those players are injured, including flyhalf Johan Goosen, lock/flank Jacques du Plessis and lock Sintu Manjezi, while young prop Mornay Smith is also still sidelined.
“The one thing that it’s going to take is time, and I don’t want to sound philosophical, but you can’t speed up time,” White said after watching his team miss out on a four-try bonus point against the Lions.
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“I said this (last) week that the Crusaders came last in 1996 in Super Rugby, and they ended up becoming the most dominant Super Rugby team through the lessons they learnt.
“You couldn’t fast-track (that). Ruan Nortje is young; Grobbies (Johan Grobbelaar) is young; Elrigh (Louw) is young, age-wise and experience-wise.
“The reality is that the margins are so small. We were 20 minutes away from getting a bonus point – and who knows, maybe that bonus point will come back to bite you.
“But we’ve got to make sure that next year, when we’ve got a group that’s a bit older and been in those situations, that they learn from them.”
White expressed his frustration about how the Lions were able to do a “very good job of making it as scrappy as possible – off their feet and playing the ball on the ground, and getting turnovers like that”, while he was also unhappy with a couple of decisions in the scrums and other situations from referee Aimee Barrett-Theron.
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However, he was pleased with the fact that his players pushed the envelope on the attack, despite the wet and slippery conditions at Loftus.
The Bulls tried to stretch the
Lions defence, but their handling let them down and ultimately resulted in them scoring only three tries – through captain Marcell Coetzee, hooker Grobbelaar and fullback KurtLee Arendse – instead of four.
Next up is the star-studded Sharks on Saturday at Loftus, and the Durban side will be keen to hit back after losing to the Stormers in Cape Town.
“Next week’s a final, because we lost to them at home (in Durban in December), and we didn’t get a point. You’ve got to win your derbies, and if you lose twice in a derby, you put yourself behind the eight-ball.
“I suppose it is like a mini-final, and we’ve got to make sure we’re good enough at home to beat them,” White said.
“I challenged them (the Bulls players) a bit this week. Once we got to see the Lions’ backline, I said to them, ‘look guys, they’re not going to have a backline that’s settled, the only way to put them under pressure is to have a go at them’.
“And we had a go and knocked a few on – Kurt-Lee lost the ball in contact – and a couple of times I thought we could’ve maybe built a little bit more pressure.
“What I don’t want is for us to go back into our shells, and then start playing conservative rugby … kicking the ball and hoping for a mistake.
“You can never win the URC 9-6. You need to be able to score tries, and at least score 21 points, and make sure the other team doesn’t,” the Bulls coach concluded.
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