White thrilled about Bulls effort: ‘Probably the best we’ve finished in two or three seasons’

Bulls boss Jake White has lauded his team for only increasing their intensity at a sweltering Ellis Park to turn a half-time score of 11–10 against them into 35–22 win at the final whistle in their United Rugby Championship match against the Lions on Saturday.

The lead switched between the teams in a tight first 65 minutes of the Jukskei derby before the Bulls started to run away with the game, man-of-the-match Marcell Coetzee and replacement hooker Akker van der Merwe both scoring tries in that period to earn the Bulls a bonus point victory.

Bulls show character to win scrap at end

“I am really happy that we took the game away from them in the last 20 minutes,” White said.

“That is always a nice thing for a coach because you know it is going to be a dog fight for a while and then you want to make sure you win the scrap at the end of the game.”

He referred to losing two captains due to injury: Ruan Nortje going off in the first five minutes and then Elrigh Louw being taken off on a stretcher and going straight to hospital for scans early in the second half.

Reinhardt Ludwig and Nizaam Carr came on for these two while Cameron Hanekom also went off in the first half but returned later.

“There were so many things that were happening and then we went down [in points] after they scored that try [Henco van Wyk’s]. Some teams would have thought ‘that’s it, we’re not going to get over the line today’.

“But not only did we get over the line we ended up getting a bonus point at Ellis Park as well, which says a lot about the character of this team.”

Bench take the Bulls over the line

White also praised the Bulls bench, which saw four Springboks come on, mostly in the second half, to up the ante.

“One of the things we said before the game is we needed our bench to be really strong today. I’m not talking about selection. I’m talking about accuracy etc.

“And that was probably the best we’ve finished a game in the past two or three seasons.”

He said the game went from the possibility of being a loss to earning a bonus point, which means a lot for the team.

Coetzee hailed the bench as well after earning man-of-the-match.

“We knew the [Lions] walls were going to break. You just have to keep hitting and hitting and when you get a Springbok like Willie le Roux coming on, Akker and Canan Moodie, it makes it easier to identify the gap,” the second stand-in captain said.