Bulls boss Jake White: ‘We get measured on results. We lost, we failed’

Even though his team staged an encouraging fightback to scare the Lions in their United Rugby Championship clash at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday, Bulls coach Jake White couldn’t hide his disappointment his team lost at home.

The Bulls went down to neighbours, the Lions, 25-29, in a thrilling match.

The Lions had led 20-3 after 24 minutes but with just over a quarter of the match remaining the Bulls had fought back to lead 25-23.

Two penalties from man of the match Sanele Nohamba though late in the game allowed the Lions to win 29-25 and end a 10-match losing run against South African opposition in the competition.

‘Not desperate enough’

White was especially disappointed by his team’s first half performance.

“It was little things … a knock, a high tackle … we win a penalty on halfway, and kick into their 22 …” bemoaned White afterwards.
“In the second half we looked desperate to come back, but the first half … I don’t think we were desperate enough. It was just words in the beginning, that’s why I’m disappointed.”

The Bulls also lost to the Stormers at home two weekends ago and before that they also came unstuck against Scarlets (away) in the URC. They also suffered a loss to Lyon (away) in the Champions Cup at the end of January.

‘We failed’

“The bottom line is we get measured on results. This is a loss, and we can’t afford losses. We have got to win, we want to be a winning team, a winning province. We failed that test today,” lamented White.

The only positive for the former Springbok coach was the fight shown by his players in the second half as well as the four tries his team scored.

“The positive is we stuck in the fight and we scored four tries, and had one disallowed,” said White.

“We have to stay positive. It will turn. Just look at the Stormers who lost to Benetton last year and went on to win the competition.”

Remaining games

Despite the defeat at the weekend, the Bulls are still sixth on the URC points table and have their playoff hopes in their hands. They have three games left — against Ulster (away), Zebre (home) and Leinster (home).

“We need to make sure we play as well as we can in our remaining games. We’d like to win all three games to make sure we make the playoffs, and aren’t reliant on other teams doing us a favour in the last round,” said White.

The Bulls also have a Champions Cup match to plan for, on 2 April, against Toulouse.

In some good news though, the Bulls will welcome back their Springbok wingers, Canan Moodie and Kurt-Lee Arendse, who have been at a national training camp, later this week.