Jake White excited about Bulls’ chances of going all the way in URC

With the Bulls having secured their top four spot at the weekend and guaranteed themselves a date at Loftus Versfeld in the United Rugby Championship quarter-finals, director of rugby Jake White is excited about what lies ahead in the coming weeks and believes his team are good enough to go all the way this season.

The Bulls beat Benetton in their penultimate match at the weekend to move to second place on the log and they can now finish no worse than fourth after next week’s final round robin game. If things go their way though, White and his charges can still finish top of the pile.

‘Good enough’

There is excitement in the Bulls camp for what lies ahead and White has targeted four more games for his team – the final round robin match against the Sharks in Durban next week, and then three playoff games.

“I am very excited about where we are and the four games that we have left — one round robin and three potential knockouts,” said White.

“If it goes according to what the log looks like now, it could go Sharks, Glasgow, Stormers and Leinster.

“I really do believe that we are good enough to beat any of those teams. That is the challenge, to get it right in four consecutive weekends.”

Top of the log

While White is pleased his side have shown progress this year, he is a little irked by the fact the Bulls are not leading the log right now.

“This year, the worst we can finish is fourth. That means it’s already a quarter-final. That’s an improvement on where we were last year.

“We are there. There’s this thing of you can’t win the lotto if you don’t have the ticket. We still got a ticket and while you have a lotto ticket, there’s hope.

“Are we where I would like us to be? No, if we had beaten Munster, we would be top of the log. That’s the margins of what we sit with.

“If we won that game with a bonus-point, we would be first or second. That’s how close it is. But there’s no doubt in my mind about the improvement. The players have grown massively over the last year.”