Bulls to use Sharks game as URC playoff trial, says Jake White

Bulls director of rugby, Jake White, says their round-robin match in this season’s United Rugby Championship against the Sharks in Durban on Saturday (4.10pm) is like a playoff fixture for them.

The side from Pretoria have already secured their place in the URC knockout stages and will be hosting a quarter-final at Loftus Versfeld next weekend. Currently, the Bulls are in second place with 61 points on the URC points table and a win over the Sharks, who are in 13th place, will boost their goal of finishing first on the log.

‘It’s like a knockout game’

Knowing they have already secured their place in the playoffs, White has been preparing his team to be ready for knockout rugby. With the Sharks being the newly crowned champions of the Challenge Cup, they are the perfect opponents for a playoff dress rehearsal.

“It’s a little bit of a knockout game for us, it’s a trial run for next week,” White said ahead of their clash with Sharks.

“We would like to play the way we have played the whole year but I also know that coming into playoffs, you can’t really play exactly the same. The pressure is different, the opposition plays differently against you, and teams are much more settled now,” he said.

‘Opportunity to tighten up’

White has seemingly settled on his starting XV and bench for the playoffs, with the same men doing duty during the final stages of the regular season. Asked what tactical boxes he would like to see the players tick in Durban, White stressed limiting the number of mistakes.

“The thing is to not make mistakes. I know it sounds obvious. As we get into these big games now, you can’t afford to make mistakes and give teams points for nothing. You need them to work for those points,” White said.

“It’s a nice opportunity for us to tighten up things so that next week when we do play in the quarter-final, no matter who we play against, we can be controlled and organised as we can be.

“This is about the last four rounds, I’m talking about this one and the three playoff games, and hopefully we will be there. The things we have done well this year are the things we need to do well in the next month,” he said.