PATCHED UP BULLS
WHITE: ABLE TO HOLD BACK BEST TEAM FOR SEMIFINAL Covid still leaving gaps to be filled as players need varying lengths of time to recover.
Bulls coach Jake White had every right to feel delighted that his team, despite playing with a new-look backline and a pack that had only trained together for three days in the last three weeks, were able to see off the high-flying Lions 22-15 in their Currie Cup clash at Loftus Versfeld and in so-doing, ensured they finished top of the log.
It means the Bulls will be able to take on the Pumas in Nelspruit on Sunday with a second-string outfit and not risk their home ground advantage.
Having weathered a Covid outbreak and not played any rugby for three weeks, the Bulls can focus on getting ready for their semifinal against the selfsame Lions on 15 or 16 January; as White said “there is no need to risk any players” this weekend.
“I expected us to struggle because we were playing with four U-21s in the backline with basically a whole backline unable to start, and we’ve hardly trained because of Covid, we only had three days together. So it was always going to be difficult, it was always going to take time to get going. But I must compliment the fightback, we didn’t have the ball at the start but once we had it I knew we would start believing,” said White.
“I’m very pleased, finishing top of the log is great for us and it means we can play our best team against the Lions again in the semis. Given our circumstances, we were not going to be able to afford to play everyone for 80 minutes so the bench would always have to come on and make an impact, and they did, which is always nice to see. I’m very happy with what I saw today (Wednesday evening).”
While the worst of the Covid outbreak has passed, White acknowledged that it was still causing vacancies in the team as players took varying lengths of time to complete their recoveries.
So while there will certainly be changes for the Pumas game, some players are simply not yet match-fit enough to be considered.
“For a lot of guys, their returnto-play protocols are not yet good enough so I’m not sure yet what sort of team I will field against the Pumas. I’ll sleep on it and see what the niggles and injuries are like after this game,” added White.
A lot of guys have now tested negative but still have to go through the return-to-play protocols, which measure things like heart-rate. For some of them it was too much of a risk to put them in a game situation.
“Hopefully they will all be fine in another 10 days time for the semifinal, but there’s no guarantee, we don’t know how long it will take when it comes to these respiratory things,” White said.