White targets extended European tour with Challenge Cup progress

Bulls Director of Rugby Jake White is targeting an extended European tour, after his charges powered to an impressive 32-22 win over French side Bayonne in their Challenge Cup last 16 encounter in France on Saturday.

It was a strong performance from the Bulls with them taking a 15-8 lead into the halftime break and then they held off a late fightback from the hosts, before an 80^th minute penalty from returning flyhalf Johan Goosen sealed the win.

The result sent the Bulls into the Challenge Cup quarterfinals where they will take on Edinburgh, who beat the Lions in their knockout match, in Scotland this coming weekend for a place in the final four.

Four week tour

When the Bulls left on tour, they knew they would be in Europe for four weeks at least, as regardless of the result against Bayonne they had to stick around for their United Rugby Championship (URC) clashes against Munster in Ireland and Glasgow Warriors in Scotland.

After their solid showing against Bayonne, White is now targeting a win over Edinburgh this coming Saturday, to add a Challenge Cup semifinal to the end of their tour at the start of May, and admitted they may need to call in some reinforcements.

“As it stands now, we’ve got Edinburgh. If we beat Edinburgh, then we go to the semifinals, which means another week on our tour. That means Edinburgh, then Munster and Glasgow, which are three massive clubs that we have to beat in the next month,” explained White.

“We only brought 30 players this week, and the reason was because we didn’t know how long we’d be here. I’m sure that we will bring in some extra players. It doesn’t look like we got any injuries and we can now build on that momentum into the next couple of rounds.

“I’m looking forward to the next couple of days because we could quite easily have been out of the competition and now we are still alive. 

“It’s wonderful to have a club and a team that’s still alive in a competition. It’s three games left (in the Challenge Cup) and hopefully we will play our best rugby in those three games.”

Bayonne performance

Speaking about the performance against Bayonne, White said he was happy with the way the team managed the crowd, and their performance on the pitch, especially with them missing some key players for the match.

“I suppose the one thing I enjoyed the most was just how we handled that crowd. It’s a big learning curve for South African sides when they play in France,” said White.

“It’s unique, especially this region. This Basque region, Bayonne, Biarritz, is generally a very difficult place to come and play good rugby. I would think the most important thing that I really enjoyed is the way we embraced the atmosphere, and the way we started.

“We also defended for so long, and they got three points. We scored some wonderful tries, and that will give us confidence, especially as we didn’t have Canan (Moodie), Kurt-Lee (Arendse) or Willie (le Roux).

“So, to get a result like that, with the way we played, is fantastic. But I can’t underplay the fact that when you come to the Basque region, it’s rugby country.”