VIDEO: Jake White's big yellow card theory after defeat to Sharks
REACTION: Bulls Director of Rugby Jake White says that the three yellow cards the Sharks conceded might have worked in their favour following his side’s 19-29 defeat to the Durban-based outfit.
The Bulls dominated the set-piece throughout the contest as the Sharks’ ill-discipline saw three of their players yellow-carded due to the set-piece pressure.
The Sharks enjoyed the majority of the territory and possession in the opening stanza but could only show one converted try and a penalty for their efforts heading into the break.
White credited the Bulls’ first half defence but soft moments in the second half proved costly for the home side.
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“I thought we defended really well in the first half, the fact that it was only 10-7 [at half-time] says a lot,” White said.
“It must have been 80 percent territory and possession [to the Sharks] in the first half as well.
“I wasn’t too concerned in the first half because I thought with all the ball they [the Sharks] had, they didn’t take advantage of it as with the territory.
“The message at half-time was we get to 60 minutes and hopefully they’ll make their changes and then we’ll put on our bench.
“Credit to them when they put their bench on.
“Maybe it worked in their favour that they rotated because they had so many yellow cards and were reasonably fresh.
“It takes nothing away from the fact that we weren’t at our best.
“That’s not how we’ve played since I’ve been here.
“It’s the second time we played the Sharks with 13 and 12 men and we looked as though we didn’t understand that we had the numerical advantage.
“We’ll [the coaches] have to sit with them [the players] during the week and go through the scenarios where I think we could’ve been a little bit smarter.”
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White also credited the Sharks’ backline, stating that they have Sevens-like players with pace to burn.
“They’ve got like Sevens players at the back and once they made line breaks it wasn’t like we could catch them.
“Generally what happened against other teams is that we had the pace to either scramble and catch them from behind.
“If you remember, one time we got put away and Devon [Williams] got caught by Yaw Penxe from the side.
“That generally hasn’t happened.
“They scored long-range tries and the reason for that is because they outpaced us – there’s no substitute for speed.
“That’s the frustrating thing because once they got behind us from a line break, we’ve generally been good enough to catch them from behind, and we didn’t do it today [Saturday].
“Obviously, we’ll have a look and see how we’re going to be able to stop teams from making line breaks and scoring against us.”
