Jake White explains why Bulls are in best position to challenge for URC title

Greater depth and more experienced players are the reasons why Bulls boss Jake White believes his team are better equipped than before to challenge for the United Rugby Championship title.

The Bulls fell short at home in the final against Glasgow last season, while two seasons before that they also came unstuck in the last match, against the Stormers, in Cape Town.

But White believes the fact the Bulls have produced several more Springbok players and recruited well in the off season leaves them in a strong position to push for the title in the fourth edition of the URC.

Two finals in three seasons

“Everyone in our circles would accept we have exceeded our expectations in the first three seasons having played in two URC finals, given we have had a very young and inexperienced squad,” said White.

“But we’ve made some good additions to our squad who have blended in nicely and we also now have eight or nine players in the Springbok set-up for the first time in a long while.

“We have had relatively inexperienced players like Ruan Nortje, Elrigh Louw and Canan Moodie winning two Tests in a row against the All Blacks.

“The kind of confidence and learning they will have got there will help us going into big games and play-off matches in the URC where we need to win.

“In a short space of time, literally three URC campaigns, we have got nine players in the South Africa squad.

“That will make us so much stronger because we can almost pick a Springbok in every position now, which is a great situation to be in when you want to win this competition.”

Other Bulls players to taste Test rugby this season are Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Johan Grobbelaar, Marco van Staden, Kurt-Lee Arendse and Willie le Roux.

Balance between youth and experience

White also pointed to a recruitment drive which has seen the likes of second rows Cobus Wiese (Sale) and Sintu Manjezi (Glasgow), flanker Nama Xaba (Stormers) and prop Alulutho Tshakweni (Cheetahs) come on board, along with former Sharks backs Boeta Chamberlain and Aphiwe Dyantyi.

“You look for the right kind of player as a person, someone who fits into the way your club wants to develop,” he said.

“We are very fortunate that we have added much more seasoned campaigners, guys like Aphiwe Dyantyi, who is coming in as a Springbok winger, a guy like Cobus Wiese coming in as a seasoned Premiership player and you saw what Akker van der Merwe did last year joining from Sale, you saw what Marcel Coetzee did coming back from overseas at Uster.

“The secret is making sure you get the balance between youth and experience and I would say this year is probably the closest we have been to the ideal combination we are looking for.

“We have got youngsters like Cameron Hanekom and we have got the middle age group sorted as well, which will make us much stronger and allow us to have much more depth in our squad selections.”

The Bulls kick off their new URC campaign with a home match against Edinburgh this weekend.

“I’m looking forward to seeing how we can kick on from last season. It’s very exciting times for the Bulls.”