White disappointed as Bulls walk away with loss in Lyon

After falling to defeat by one point in their Champions Cup encounter against Lyon on Saturday, Bulls director of rugby Jake White says the result is a testament to how tough the competition is.

Despite their courageous efforts at the Stade Gerland, the Bulls fell short suffering an agonising 29-29 defeat. The Pretoria side earned a losing bonus point seeing them in third place in Pool A with five points.

The Bulls went into the interval leading 18 -12 courtesy of tries by scrumhalf Zak Burger and winger Seargeal Petersen and eight points via the boot of Chris Smith. Sensing that Lyon had the momentum at the end of the first half, Smith added another three points to keep the scoreboard ticking in favour of the Bulls.

However, Lyon scored three tries via Alfred Parisian, Yanis Charcosset, and Thibaut Regard to take the lead. The Bulls responded with a converted try by Springbok Marco van Staden.

With the match a one-pointer, the Bulls could have stolen it at the death but Jaco van der Walt’s penalty didn’t go in the middle of the poles.

“We should have won”

Speaking after the match, White said they were disappointed to be on the losing side as they had a chance to win despite their regulars having remained at home.

“We are disappointed to walk away from the match as the side that lost,” White told the Bulls media team.

“We will probably walk away feeling as if we should have won that one, which is impressive for us and is a sign of the great depth that we are working on as a club to be able to rotate our side and come to France and take the game to them like we did.”

“To stay in the game and in the end lose by 1 point is a sign of how tight and how tough this competition is. You need to be on top of your game from start to finish otherwise you allow the other side an opportunity to steal it from you,” he said.

Learning curve

The Bulls mentor commended his players for the fight they showed against Lyon.

“I am extremely proud of the character and spirit that the team showed to stay in the fight right until the very last minute and the last play of the match, the boys must take that as a pat on the back. We will get better and we will learn as we go forward, even if sometimes the results do not go your way,” White said.

Next for the Bulls is a North-South derby against the Stormers in the United Rugby Championship this coming Saturday at the Cape Town Stadium.