White chuffed with Bulls first outing
• Tempo was good and we were outstanding in first 40 minutes, says coach
Bulls director of rugby Jake White was full of praise for his team after they outmuscled and out-thought the Sharks 49-28 in the first match of the Super Fan encounter at an empty Loftus stadium on Saturday.
The Bulls‚ who got out of the blocks with furious pace‚ led 35-7 at halftime and scored seven tries in the match to four by the Sharks who looked to be still in lockdown mode.
Looking back at his team’s dominant performance‚ White said they played with high tempo and they were accurate on the attack as they finished most of the chances they created especially in the first half.
“I am very happy for a lot of reasons. We had a chance to play rugby again‚ to look at both our squads‚ we didn’t have any injuries and I thought the way we started the match was very clinical and accurate‚” said White after the first professional rugby match in SA in six months.
“We try to play in a different way and I thought the tempo was good and we accurately used some of the chances we created. At one point‚ we didn’t let them get into our 22 which was also very good from a defensive point of view.”
White was impressed with the execution of set pieces by his team which was another area they dominated the Sharks.
“I thought for the first 40 minutes we were outstanding but we let them score right at the death with 14 men on the field. The other things I am chuffed about is that in the second half‚ youngsters that came on thought it was going to be easy but they got a wake-up call because they were made to scramble.
“I said to them after the match ‘ welcome to senior rugby ’. A guy like Jan-Hendrik Wessels has the ball turned over a couple of times‚ but last year he was playing school rugby at Grey College. The scrum was fantastic and it’s obviously a massive part of the Bulls DNA.”
Kurt-Lee Arendse and David Kriel scored two tries each for the Bulls with Schalk Erasmus‚ Stedman Gans and Travis Ismaiel getting one each as they showed their dominance.
With the boot‚ veteran flyhalf Morné Steyn managed five successful kicks and Chris Smith put away two. The Sharks tries came from Grant Williams‚ Marius Louw‚ Dan Jooste and Jaden Hendrickse with Curwin Bosch and Jordan Chait converting two each.