White gives his Bulls the thumbs up, full of praise for young Hanekom

Bulls director of rugby Jake White said he was pleased with the link-up play between the forwards and the backs in his team’s 63-21 win over Scarlets in their opening United Rugby Championship match on Sunday at Loftus Versfeld.

The Bulls were ruthless in their performance; they ran in nine tries courtesy of Ruan Nortje, Cameron Hanekom (2), Johan Grobbelaar, David Kriel, Stedman Gans (2), Akker van der Merwe and Wandisile Simelane. Flyhalf Johan Goosen kicked nine conversions in a polished performance.

The big win has the Pretoria franchise at the summit of the URC table after the opening weekend’s action.

Speaking to the media after the game, White said he was happy with how the forwards and backs combined and how the team executed the basics.

“The most important thing for me was the way the backs and forwards combined. We played at altitude in 32 degrees Celsius … we wanted to move the ball around and use our skillsets, and from that point of view, I’m very happy,” White said.

“Our scrums and lineouts and the other basics were good. I’m chuffed with the way we put the jigsaw pieces together. At times it looked really impressive.”

Rising star Hanekom

The Bulls mentor went on to praise Hanekom, who won the man of the match gong. The SA U/20 star made his URC debut and he never looked out of place.

“He’s phenomenal, first game in the URC, and he wins man of the match. He looked like a seasoned pro, it’s not easy to come into a game like that for a first game,” White said.

“I rate him highly, he’s got everything, he’s got a great feel, he’s got speed, and he put on some size in the off-season. He’s got a good pedigree, comes from a good background … at Paarl Boys High.

“It’s early days but it’s nice having a young forward coming through. We know the bonuses we got with Canan (Moodie) in his rookie year. To get a guy like Cameron in the forward pack coming through is going to make things so much better for us going forward.”

The Bulls will now travel to Ireland where they will take on Ulster at the Kingspan Stadium on Sunday.