‘Bulls need time to grow’ – Jake White after Leinster loss

Bulls director of rugby Jake White was in a philosophical mood on Tuesday morning when he admitted that his team were deservedly beaten by an internationally seasoned Leinster team in the United Rugby Championship (URC) at the weekend.

In the game at the RDS Arena in Dublin the Bulls put in a battling first-half performance to lead 14-12 at the break, before Leinster threw on a host of Irish internationals in the second half and powered away for a massive 47-14 win.

It was billed as a ‘Test’ match between the two top sides in the URC but ended up being a one-sided thumping for the hosts, who underlined their credentials as one of the best franchise teams in world rugby.

Putting it in perspective

Far from being despondent, White perfectly put the loss into perspective when he explained exactly how difficult that Leinster team are to beat.

“Things must be put in perspective. A lot of guys have asked me what happened. 14-12 up, I thought we had played quite nicely. But then they brought on (Tadgh) Furlong, (Caelin) Doris, (Jamison) Gibson-Park, (Dan) Sheehan and the list just went on,” said White.

“Not taking anything away from the players that I have, because that’s what we have. It was a good measurement for us as a group.

“This tournament has been going for three years. We lost our very first (URC) game against them 31-3 at the Aviva Stadium. If I look back three years, I think we have grown a lot as a group. We have added a lot of quality players to our squad.”

White continued: “But the reality is in the last three seasons the bulk of their (Leinster’s) players would have played in three Six Nations (for Ireland) and won two of them; played in the World Cup; beaten both the Boks and All Blacks twice; played in two European Cup finals against La Rochelle.

“So if you just analyse, without being emotional about it, the development over the past three years for a squad like that is almost unheard of. And when you get pressure like that in big games, and are exposed to that intensity and opposition, it can only make you better.”

Perfect lesson

Despite the second-half blowout White believed it was the perfect lesson for his team and the players would learn a lot from the encounter going forward.

If they could keep their group together over the coming years and continue improving, he felt they would grow into a much more formidable team in the future.

“We played alright in the first half and stayed in the fight. They went up a few gears in the second half and scored quickly. I think what we learnt there is that we still have a long way to go in terms of time together,” said White.

“People ask me what we need and I say I need time. I need these players to grow in these positions. One of the things I intentionally did was put the whole bench on so they could feel the intensity of what it feels like when a team has got you by the throat.

“We will be better for that going forward. I need this group to keep growing over the next few years and the way to do that is to put them in pressure situations like that and see if they sink or swim.”