‘I have never experienced that’: Bulls’ Jake White after chaotic finish to Ospreys match

Bulls Director of Rugby Jake White admitted that he had never experienced such a chaotic end to a game, after his side were forced to finish their United Rugby Championship (URC) match against Ospreys with 12 men on the field.

The Bulls still managed to walk away with a 29-19 bonus point win, which was incredible in that they played the last 31 minutes of the match with a man down after a red card to David Kriel.

That was then compounded by yellow cards to Elrigh Louw and Alulutho Tshakweni, which meant they played about 12 of those minutes with 13-men, while the final three minutes of the game they only had 12-men on the field.

This was due to uncontested scrums being called, which meant that an extra forward had to be substituted to essentially punish a side for not being able to have contested scrums, and make sure the side that can contest is rewarded.

It was quite harsh on the Bulls who had enjoyed scrum dominance all game over Ospreys, but were forced into uncontested scrums after loosehead prop Gerhard Steenekamp failed an HIA, so he couldn’t return to the field, while his replacement Tshakweni was yellow carded in the 72nd minute.

Uncontested scrums

So when the first scrum since Tshakweni’s yellow happened, in the 77^th minute, two Bulls players had to go off, one to bring another front ranker on, and the other as punishment for uncontested scrums.

A bizarre sequence then followed as lock Ruan Vermaak made way for Johan Grobbelaar, while confusion then reined as the Bulls were forced to send another player off, which ended with captain Ruan Nortje going off, coming back on and then going off again permanently.

“What happened was Gerhard failed his HIA and Alulutho got a yellow card. So what that meant was that the next time we got a scrum, which was thankfully in the 77^th minute and not five minutes before that, we had to replace a forward because it was uncontested scrums,” explained White.

“So we had to bring Grobbies (hooker Grobbelaar) back on, because you’re not allowed to put loose forwards in the front row to stop teams from doing that deliberately.

“I have been coaching now for 42 years and I have never been involved in a game where it was so chaotic. Then the captain comes off, and I don’t know who took the captain off. I don’t even think the ref knows how the captain came off.

“So it’s the first time I have ever experienced that and I don’t think anybody knew what was going on for those three minutes. We are just fortunate that we came through that (without major damage).”

Winning run

Despite the wild end to the game, White was grateful that his side managed to seal a bonus point win to start their tour, which also extended their winning run to three games this season.

“I am really pleased with our start, especially (this win) away from home. As you saw Stormers lost (against Edinburgh), Sharks lost (against Benetton). You look at touring sides. Edinburgh and Ulster both came to South Africa and lost (both their games),” said White.

“Playing away from home is always tough and any away win is a bonus. So to come away from Ospreys with a win (was good). The Stormers were here a couple of weeks ago (and lost), so they know how tough it is.

“So it is mission accomplished in terms of game won and five points. But we are not taking anything for granted.

“We have Scarlets (in Llanelli) next and they have just come off a win against Cardiff and a draw against Benetton who convincingly beat the Sharks. So we are under no illusions that the next game will be just as tough as this first game.”