White confident of Bulls’ chances with a more experienced squad

Bulls director of rugby Jake White is heading to Cape Town with more experienced troops for his team’s United Rugby Championship battle against the Stormers this weekend.

It has been a tough time for the Bulls in the North-South derbies in the URC; they have lost six times against the Stormers in the two seasons they have played.

According to White, one of the reasons for the shortfalls in their clashes with the Stormers has been their lack of experience.

This season, however, the Bulls have grown as a team, with a perfect blend of experience and youth helping them to be one of the early pacesetters in the URC.

Speaking to the media ahead of Saturday’s blockbuster at Cape Town Stadium (7 pm), White felt their team were close to being the complete package.

“Our squad has got more strings on their bow. I’m not saying we are the complete deal yet, I mean we are far from that,” White said.

“I’m a lot more confident. In areas we were exposed at, and could have become better, we improved.”

Stronger scrum

An aspect of the game in which White felt the Bulls could not previously compete with the Stormers was the scrums battle, with the Western Cape side coming out on top as they had world-class front rowers in Steven Kitshoff, Joseph Dweba and Frans Malherbe.

This weekend, White is expected to deploy an experienced front row of Gerhard Steenekamp, Akker van der Merwe and Wilco Louw against a Stormers front row which is missing Malherbe.

“One of the areas that was our Achilles heel was our scrum. If you consider at that stage we were playing against the Stormers with Kitshoff and Malherbe, who were World Cup winners,” said White.

“We started with a very inexperienced front row with guys like Gerhard Steenekamp and Monray Smith. They have grown, also become better, and become much more streetwise, a bit more experienced, and they understand the pressure.

“Then to get an acquisition in the front row like Akker van der Merwe and Wilco Louw, they were two missing pieces we added to our jigsaw puzzle.”

Well rested

The Bulls will unleash a well-rested side, with White having opted to give his regular starters a break for their Champions Cup clash against Lyon last week.

The Bulls mentor is hoping this will help give them an edge against John Dobson’s team on Saturday.

“I’m hoping that the fact that we’ve rotated and got some fresh players, the fact we haven’t had to travel back and forth to France, will give us some sort of extra energy and fuel in the tank because we know it’s a massive game.”