Jake White: Munster know how to win in SA

Bulls director of rugby, Jake White, has warned that Munster are not a team to be underestimated ahead of their crucial United Rugby Championship clash on Saturday at Loftus Versfeld (kick-off at 5.05pm).

The warning from White steams from Munster’s win in last season’s URC final against the Stormers in Cape Town, where they won 19-14. It was Munster’s second win over the Stormers as they defeated them 26-24 in round 17.

“They beat the Stormers”

 Based on that, White believes Munster will lean on their experience of winning in South Africa in the past when they take on the Bulls.

“Munster are URC champions, that’s what people must understand,” White said when speaking to the media.

 “They beat the Stormers last year in Cape Town, not many teams have got that right. It’s not only their attack; they have got a good team. That’s why we are going to have to take it like a final; they are the benchmark for the competition.

“They know how to win in South Africa; any team that would have beaten the Stormers here would put that in their memory bank. They beat us last time we played them in Munster (they won 31-17), and they have beaten us convincingly before, we are going to have to play well to beat them tomorrow,” he said.

White emphasised that they need to get a win against Munster as they are chasing Leinster and Glasgow Warriors on the URC points table. 

‘The race is open’

The Bulls are in third place with 45 while Glasgow are in second and Leinster in first place. A loss to Munster, who are fourth with 43 points, would be detrimental to the Bulls’ goal to finish in the top two.

“Now, it’s very open, there are a lot of permutations, you have Leinster here (playing the Lions and Stormers), the Sharks have gone to Glasgow without their Boks and that puts pressure on us because we want to catch Glasgow,” White said.

“All we can do is make sure we win as many games between now and the end of the season and give ourselves the best chance to finish as high as possible. Sometimes it might be out of our hands, because if we win everything and Glasgow wins everything, Leinster win everything, it’ll stay the way it is.