Jake White uses Bulls break to ‘reboot’ amid losing streak

Bulls director of rugby Jake White says his team need to go back to the drawing board, but they also realise they have had some extremely difficult matches and are not blaming themselves too much for losing.

The Bulls have lost three games in a row, and their last win was against Connacht on 30 November.

Since then, they lost 27–5 to Saracens and 30–21 to Northampton Saints in the Champions Cup before their narrow 20–17 defeat to the Sharks in their United Rugby Championship (URC) game at Kings Park last weekend.

The Bulls now have a few weeks off to recalibrate before they return to action in the Champions Cup in mid-January (vs Castres Olympique on 11 Jan), with their next URC game against the Lions at Ellis Park at the end of that month.

Bulls to recap and reboot

“That is what I am going to use these two weeks for, to do a recap and a reboot on where I think we are,” White told media.

However, he said he must be careful not to judge too harshly because the Bulls had played five of their seven URC games away from home.

These included matches against Saracens and Northampton in England, which White felt were very strong sides.

“Saracens will be there at the back end of the European tournaments. They have got internationals across the board. Northampton were semi-finalists last year and they won the Premiership.

“So when I look at that I don’t want to look at just the negatives. I have got to look at where we are, what we can do, and how we can grow.”

He said they were losing not because of the strength of the opposition, or even the strength of his own side. Rather, the Bulls were “missing something”.

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Confident decision-making is missing at Bulls

“We are just getting to situations where we manage certain things differently from what I would like them to.”

He said this was his problem as a coach: Finding how to manage his players so they took options that he wanted them to take.

This was because he believed his players were good enough to take those options, rather than because he was forcing them to.

He referred to how he told the Bulls to kick the ball into a corner for a late lineout against the Sharks instead of taking a penalty kick that would have drawn the match.

“Some guys would say why did we take the corner and not go for a draw? I would have liked them to say let’s go to the corner and win, without me having to say that. And if they did, fine, but I am not convinced they would have said ‘right, let’s win this game’.

“That is just something that takes time and takes coaching.”

He believed his team were probably just one play away from clicking as a unit.

Castres are fourth in pool three with one win from two games in the Champions Cup, and they have four points compared to the Bulls’ zero.

The teams’ point difference is neck and neck so a win could see the Bulls overtake Castres unless the French side earn a bonus point.