White loving the Bulls’ ‘balanced’ game
WHERE the Bulls end up on the United Rugby Championship (URC) log is virtually out of their hands, but there is no doubt that Jake White’s team will be a real threat to the rest of the teams in the play-offs.
Having had a weekend off, they were a bit slow out of the blocks against Benetton at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday, but recovered to score some outstanding tries in a 46-29 triumph.
They are now in eighth position on 48 points, one behind Edinburgh and two behind Glasgow Warriors, and they will hope to push the latter side down the table when they meet at Loftus Versfeld on Friday night (7pm kick-off).
The Pretoria side then complete their roundrobin programme against the Ospreys in Wales on May 20, and will go all out for 10 log points from their last two matches.
It’s all about finishing in the top seven, as that would guarantee Champions Cup qualification for next season, as well as a URC quarter-final.
But the fact that they were able to score six tries and register such a comprehensive win over a team that destroyed them in the Rainbow Cup final last year speaks volumes about how they have progressed since.
It is the manner in which this Bulls team are able to break down the opposition that is most impressive. Kurt-Lee Arendse was again a massive threat on attack against the Italian side, Canan Moodie and Madosh Tambwe kept the defences busy, and forwards such as Ruan Nortje, Johan Grobbelaar and captain Marcell Coetzee never stopped working.
“Last time we played them, they beat us easily. That’s why as a coach, all you want to see is that progression, and 13-0 down and 16-5 down … to come back and win with a bonus point, you can’t ask for more than that,” White said.
“There are a lot of highlights and character that coaches want to see. So, we will take a lot of confidence out of that, and hopefully we will be able to freshen up and get ready for Friday night (against Glasgow).
“The thing I’m most pleased about is the brand of rugby that the Bulls are playing. For me, it’s like nice, balanced rugby – we can use our forwards sometimes, we can use our backs.
“At the start of this competition, I said you are not going to win this competition by winning 12-11 and 13-9 – you are going to have to score tries, and if you look at how many tries we are scoring now and how we’ve been playing from counter-attack, and we are looking in terms of ball-in-hand …
“Our locks are running and offloading to backs is obviously the most pleasing thing. The style of rugby and the brand we are playing is enjoyable. And I’m sure the crowds and the Bulls supporters are enjoying the fact that when they do watch us, they feel proud.
“We can score maul tries, which we’ve done. We can score full-range, length-of-the-field tries – that try that Kurt-Lee counter-attacked out of his half, and then it went through Canan and Ruan running down the middle of the field and offloading the ball – I think that’s where rugby is going.”
The Bulls may need some of the other play-off contenders to knock each other out over the next few weeks in order to move up the table, and they need to ensure that they take care of their own results as well.
“I just said to someone earlier before the game: who would’ve thought South African sides are vying for one of the top spots. We can only control what we can control. We’ve got two games left, one home and one away, and we must play as well as we can and get wins,” White said.
“Whatever happens around that, we can’t control – we can only control those two results. We mustn’t look too far ahead.”