Jake White hails Bulls’ never-say-die attitude after Leinster thriller

Bulls boss Jake White hailed his side’s big match temperament and never-say-die attitude after ending Leinster’s 12-game winning streak in the United Rugby Championship (URC) at Loftus on Saturday.

The Bulls won the game by just one point (final score 21–20) after coming back from a 10–6 deficit at halftime, lifting their game in the second half to dominate lineouts, scrums and mauls especially.

Neither side was perfect on the day but the third-ranked Bulls can be proud of how their forward pack almost entirely won the game for them, battering the star-studded Leinster side into submission.

While several of Leinster’s Irish internationals didn’t take to the field after the Six Nations, they still boasted international stars James Culhane, Will Connors, Jimmy O’Brien, Ross Byrne, Thomas Clarkson and Scott Penny, as well as South African double World Cup winner RG Snyman, New Zealand star Jordie Barrett and French international Rabah Slimani.

The Bulls rung their own share of changes – nine in the starting XV, to be exact, and moved three players to different positions. They were also without captain Ruan Nortjé, second-choice captain Elrigh Louw, another stand-in captain Reinhardt Ludwig, last year’s Golden Boot winner Johan Goosen and Springbok star Kurt-Lee Arendse.

Bulls never give up

The Bulls were expected to win at home, especially with Leinster only recording one win out of seven games in South Africa before the loss.

But Leinster bringing a stronger side than expected threw a proverbial spanner in the works and in the end it was their scrum dominance, particularly from replacements Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Johan Grobbelaar, and Mornay Smith, that turned the tide.

They produced the scrum turnover in extra time that set up David Kriel’s match-winning penalty kick.

“Most teams might have thought, ‘That’s it, game gone’. Most teams would’ve accepted that Leinster would’ve finished the game off,” White said afterwards

“And they didn’t. How much price can you put on a team that says, ‘Forget it, we are going to get a scrum penalty here’?”

The coach said that mentality was all he was asking for.

“[I told them] Just make sure that today we are desperate to get a result. I want to see for 80 minutes that you are desperate for a result.

“We needed a scrum penalty in the last play of the game, and they needed to put the ball in and out, and kick the ball out.

“And after two resets, we managed to get the penalty on the third scrum. Our set-piece was outstanding.”

White hails David Kriel as ‘gold’ for the team

The Bulls can also be grateful David Kriel put the final kick through in extra time, as a miss would have meant a loss. The Bulls were poorer in goal-kicking on the day, slotting three of five while Leinster’s Ross Byrne didn’t miss any of his four.

Of Kriel, White said, “He’s on over 80 or 100 games, and he’s gold for us. He marked a top backline, and has been playing really good rugby.”