In the wake of a derby defeat against the Stormers in Cape Town, Jake White has taken comfort in the Bulls’ current status as the top-ranked South African team in the URC. DYLAN JACK reports.
The Vodacom Bulls’ hoodoo in the North-South derby continued as they suffered a seventh successive loss against the Stormers on Saturday night.
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A third loss in eight games means that White’s team remains in fourth place on the table, four points ahead of the Stormers, their closest South African chasers.
“It’s eight rounds that we’ve played, and we’re top of the South African teams. If you had said that before we started that we’d get to Christmas, be top of the SA teams and we’ve only played three home games this year, I’m sure all the Bulls supporters and we coaches would have taken it,” White said after the match.
“We’ve got to regroup over the next two weeks because we were on the wrong end of the result, but the tournament isn’t over, anyone will tell you if you look at the last couple of years it’s irrelevant where you are now. It’s where you’re going to be when the playoffs come.”
Looking at the game itself, White admitted that he was surprised by the kick pressure applied by the Stormers to the Bulls’ all-Springbok back three of Willie le Roux, Kurt-Lee Arendse and Canan Moodie.
“I didn’t think they’d kick so much onto the back three and win the ball back against three really good players. I’m not sure of the numbers but I think Willie, Canan and Kurt-Lee all knocked-on one or two and then all of a sudden it became open field play and they’re very good at it.
“They surprised me because I didn’t think they’d do it against us. They’ve done it well against everybody, but I thought they might be a bit more hesitant to do it against us.”
Playing at a packed Cape Town Stadium, the Bulls struggled to replicate the starting intensity which had helped them claim home wins over Saracens and the Sharks in Pretoria.
White bemoaned his side’s first-half performance and poor discipline, as they gave away needless penalties, helping the Stormers build scoreboard pressure.
“In the first half I thought that was probably the worst we’ve played this year,” White said. “It was a game where there was a try disallowed, [another] try disallowed, a breakaway into their half, turnover. It could have gone either way.
“The interesting stat with penalties was that we conceded eight in the first half and six in the first 22 minutes.
“If you give any side six penalties in 22 minutes to start off the game you put yourself behind the eight ball. It wasn’t so much the eight conceded, it was the six early on in the game.
“They’re a good team, they’re good at home and they need a good start, they get a good start, you don’t take your chances and you give them six penalties, it becomes very tough.
“But it takes nothing away from the fact that we really thought we could win this game because we’d been playing well, and we trained well this week.”
While Bulls fans felt aggrieved by the performance of referee Marius van der Westhuizen, White said that he was “so happy” with the big calls made by the officiating team.
“I thought the common sense today was spot-on. Mpilo Gumede’s tackle was as legal as tackles come, Gerhard Steenekamp changed his body height, made head contact and it was a yellow card.
“[Suleiman] Hartzenberg’s foot was on the line [when he scored] – I’m happy they found that angle, sometimes we come here and they don’t find that angle – I can’t moan about the calls.
“There are certain things you always wish go your way, the wheeling of the scrum in the first half looked the same as the wheeling of the scrum in the second half but there were two different calls.
“But overall I don’t think there was influence by anyone other than that we had our chances and we should have taken them.”
Photo: Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images