Humble White admits Stormers too good as Bulls’ URC campaign ends

Bulls Director of Rugby Jake White was humble in defeat after he watched his side go down 33-21 to the Stormers in their United Rugby Championship (URC) quarterfinal clash at the Cape Town Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

The Stormers were always favourites going into the knockout match, but the Bulls would have had hope after playing some of their best rugby of the URC campaign over the final two rounds of the pool phase.

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However it was another superb performance from the Cape Town side that firmly kept their stranglehold over the Bulls in the URC, with this their sixth straight win over their Northern rivals in the competition.

“You’ve got to be a bit humble. I think the Stormers played really well tonight. They are champions and have an incredible record at home,” said White after the match.

“They are not the champions of the URC for nothing. They have 10 Springboks. I just said to the players that we would’ve had to play really well tonight, put them under pressure and get them to panic a little bit for us to have won this game.

“So credit to them, they didn’t panic. They got (off to) a good start. To be 17-0 down to a team that’s won the championship, not many teams in this comp in Cape Town would come back and win that game.”

Fighting spirit

The Bulls did however show some fighting spirit, as they went into the halftime break just 10 points down despite having been dominated for most of the first half, and put in a decent second half showing to never let the Stormers get out of sight.

“Three tries and 21 points, with the amount of ball and territory we had, I’ve got to be proud of the way that the players stuck to it,” said White.

“The way they fought in the game. As coaches, you always measure those sorts of things because we could’ve quite easily just laid down and died and got given a 30 or 40-point drubbing.”

The Bulls also had to contend with losing two of their star players, Springbok wing Canan Moodie before the match after he failed a late fitness test, and utility back Johan Goosen to a head knock early in the second half.

“To lose Canan and then Goosen, those are two Springboks who have X-factor. We are probably not in the fortunate situation like other teams to have as many (star players) as the other franchises with those kinds of players at our disposal,” said White.