Adapt or die for SA teams

Ripped apart by Benetton Treviso on one of the most frustrating days in Bulls history, coach Jake White decried the “arrogance” of South African rugby that saw most pundits and fans expecting the local champions to just rock up in Europe and win the Rainbow Cup final.

The Bulls were meant to be triumphant forerunners of a wave of South African teams entering and dominating European competition via the new United Rugby Championship, but instead there will now be many questions overseas as to what our teams are going to add to the proud Celtic league.

Ponderous, one-dimensional and error-prone in comparison with an impressive Benetton side that produced some dazzling rugby, the Bulls were hammered 358.

“It would be a bit arrogant to think that we could just arrive in Italy and beat a club side and then fly home. Sometimes as a coach you just have to take it, tactically Benetton were very smart and there was no one area where we stamped our mark, we were a bit short in everything. But I’m a realist and that’s the first time many of this team felt pressure like that.

“Benetton have a lot of experienced Test players, they’ve played against England at Twickenham and France in Paris, and when you get them here at home, they can play. We looked inexperienced and we can blame that, the heat or the crowd, but at the end of the day we got it wrong. It was up to us to find a way, to do things differently,” White said.

While the Bulls have basically physically-dominated everyone back at home, it is clear that they play a more highbrow form of rugby in Europe and the South African teams are going to have to adapt very quickly.

South Africa’s dominant team have just been handed a whipping by a team, impressive as they were on the day, no-one in Europe seriously thinks is better than big guns Leinster, Munster and Ulster, never mind the Champions Cup teams.

“It’s a completely different game up North and Benetton are a well-coached team who played really well. Hopefully this loss makes us so much better and I’m glad for the opportunity to grow as a team. Our youngsters have now seen that it’s a completely different game up here.

“To the other South African teams I would say ‘Don’t come here thinking it’s the same as what you’re used to’,” cautioned White.