White: 'Maybe we need a 20 minute coffee break' 

REACTION: Bulls Director of Rugby Jake White expressed his frustration of his side’s inability to finish off try scoring opportunities that ultimately led to the hosts’ 21-30 loss against Northampton Saints in the Champions Cup.

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“I’m really frustrated, we had all the chances in the beginning, again first lineout – double banking, second lineout we get stopped one metre from the line and knock the ball on,” White lamented.

“What people and even the players must understand is in this competition, these are the best players, playing club rugby in the world.

“When you don’t take your chances and you’re not on top of your game, they will find a way to beat you.”

White stressed that all the talk in the build-up to the match never materialised on the field

“We said we weren’t going to give them penalties, we said we weren’t going to give them entries into our 22 [metre area] we said we need to play well at home…we never did any of those things.

“That for me summarises what I’m feeling, there’s no use just talking about it, otherwise it means nothing.”

White gave a tong-in-cheek response regarding the sweltering conditions that required water breaks 20 minutes into each half.

“It’s interesting because they have a 20 minute water break when it’s really hot where we don’t have a strategy break when it’s really cold.

“I thought about it the other day, maybe we also need a 20 minute water , coffee or hot chocolate break when we play in those conditions.

“Because what it does do is it gives you chance to regroup, if you’re on top it gives you time to cement what you need to be doing, but that is the way it is.

“In South Africa in really hot conditions teams after 20 minutes probably get a strategy break which is I suppose is needed but it’s a hell of a disadvantage if you don’t use them like we were supposed to.”

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The Director of Rugby is still optimistic regarding his side making the knockout stages of the Champions Cup although to his own admission conceded that it will be a much tougher road following the defeat to Northampton.

“You’re still alive in this competition because it doesn’t mean you have to win every game to be in the playoffs.

“But we make it very hard for ourselves because you can’t lose a home game and not only did we lose we didn’t get a point so that makes it even tougher.

“There’s still Castres away and we still got Stade Francais here and if we win both those games the chances are very good that you’ll make the top 16.

“Because of the fact that some teams have won and lost in different pools and those pools are as competitive as ours is.

“I’ll have a look at the end of the weekend and see where we are on the log, see who’s done well in the other pools and you’ll soon get a feel if you could make the top 16 and then make a decision on what is next.

“Are we going to go into the next phase of the competition because you can actually go into the Challenge Cup as well

“Or you can be completely out and get time off to regroup for the URC and that’s not something I’m obviously thinking about but it is something to have a look at.”

White outlined that his team are still going through growing pains and that players who are unavailable through injuries isn’t ideal, and that there might have been a lack of leadership with those players that were unavailable.

“That goes without saying, you’ve got no Kurt-Lee Arendse, no Ruan Nortje, no Cobus Wiese who has been part of our group and basically every game since we’ve been here.

“I’ve coached so long now and I don’t think I remember where I’ve ever had the perfect 23 ever on a team sheet, because as I speak now there are guys sitting at the doc.

“I thought they would play next week and I’ve done a plan on how I think we could be strong for next week and that could be influenced that some guys are out for a week or three.

“You need those senior guys and that experience, a guy like JF [Van Heerden], I’m just making an example , we lose a lineout and I don’t know if we would lose that lineout if Ruan Nortje is there.

“But I don’t have Ruan Nortje there and he made exactly the same mistakes when we started together as a group.

“I remember when Reinhardt Ludwig came in and we said the same thing so it’s not easy and it’s not something you want to sit here and debate about all the time, but I also am a realist that they need to learn and earn their stripes.

“I’m hoping now that there’s a reaction from them, and collectively I don’t for one minute say it’s them and not me, my message to them was we need to understand how we’re going to sort it out.”