VIDEO: Jake White on why Bulls are their own worst enemy
REACTION: Bulls Director of Rugby Jake White questioned his team’s game management in their United Rugby Championship clash against the Lions in Pretoria on Saturday.
The home side was lucky to record a 30-28 win, which sent them to fourth position in the URC standings.
Lions’ replacement flyhalf Jordan Hendrikse had an opportunity to snatch victory at the death with a long-range penalty kick. However, he pulled his kick wide.
The Bulls’ performance was plagued with errors throughout the 80 minutes and it also played a massive role in the three tries the Lions scored in the match.
The story continues below…
“I thought our game management was poor at times,” said White.
“For all the experience we have in the backs, we looked as though we pulled the trigger too quickly at times. We looked like we were disjoined.
“But there are positives. We are 3-12 down and you come back and you are eventually leading 27-18.
“I take that as a massive positive.
“Some teams would have panicked and probably not get back into the fight.
“But it is not the way we wanted to play. We gave them a try over the top of a line-out and that’s seven [points].
“We dropped the ball in the in-goal area and that is seven
“The other one is where we kicked long and we didn’t have a chase line.
“Sergeal kicked too quickly and then he marked and I don’t know what he was thinking.
“He just kicks the ball straight down the field and Nohamba beats the first line and the Lions go on and score.
“There is a lot of learnings there, but a win is a win and sometimes you need a bit of luck.
“Maybe a year ago, Hendrikse kicks that ball over and we lose that game.
“Those are the margins and sometimes you need a bit of luck because it can change the outcome for the rest of the season.”
White also had another golfing analogy to describe Saturday’s performance.
“Sometimes golfers don’t hit every green or every fairway and they are still on top of the leaderboard and that’s similar to what we did.
“That’s not our greatest performance and we got a win.”
The story continues below…
The Bulls do not have any competition games until February 17, but White knows that they are entering an important stage of the season.
“The next two [matches] are derby games. We got them [the Lions in Johannesburg] and the Stormers here [in Pretoria],” said White.
“Those are defining moments for the overall standings and it’s a defining moment for the [SA] conference.
“We got a couple of tough weeks of prep, but we will have guys like Canan [Moodie] and Kurt-Lee [Arendse] back.
“Hopefully, from a selection point of view, we will be in a good place to actually put some more Springboks on the field.”
By Warren Fortune & Annemie Bester
@rugby365com
