Jake White wants his Bulls to take lessons from Leinster

Following their 47-14 drubbing to Leinster on Friday, Bulls director of rugby Jake White has acknowledged that it will take time for them to reach the performance levels of top-tier European clubs.

What was supposed to be a high standard top-of-the-table United Rugby Championship clash turned into a one-sided game as Leinster gave the Bulls a reality check in front of a sold-out RDS Arena in Dublin.

They ran in seven tries to the Bulls’ one and were superior in almost every aspect of the game as their Irish internationals displayed their quality that’s of Test rugby calibre.

‘Doesn’t happen overnight’

Although White has done well to grow the Bulls’ base and make them a competitive squad, the defeat to Leinster was a reminder of the work that needs to be done to make the Pretoria franchise a credible outfit in European rugby.

“What I do take is that we need time. This doesn’t happen overnight for Leinster,” White told the media after the game.

“I look at their bench, and it reminded me of that Springboks bench that’s packed with internationals, and not just internationals, proper internationals.

“The positive I take out as the head of rugby at the Bulls is we still have a lot of work to do, and we still have lots of things we need to get right on and off the field. I will speak to players individually about certain things but I think there’s learning for me as director of rugby and the union.”

The Bulls started the game on a positive note; they competed with Leinster and led 14-12 at the interval thanks to a Kurt-Lee Arendse try and nine points off the boot of flyhalf Johan Goosen.

Leinster put quality on show

However, a Leinster onslaught would follow in the second half as they scored 35 unanswered points and were in cruise control for the rest of the match as they took a bonus-point win.

“There were a couple of things I was happy about. We did certain things right,” White said.

“That scrum at the beginning was outstanding. I thought our lineout in the first half was very accurate and we did create chances.

“It was 14-12 up at half-time and it looks like you lost your way in the second half, and I think to be fair. It was definitely up another two, three, four gears after half-time.

“We are going to have to learn from that and I’m not talking about rugby learning, just learning as a club of how we can get to those heights.”

The Bulls will now shift their attention to the Champions Cup as they take on Lyon on Saturday at Loftus Versfeld in a last-16 encounter.