Jake White tore into suggestions that the Lions are a dangerous team with ball-in-hand, while opening up on why the Vodacom Bulls did not return to the changeroom during half time at Ellis Park.
The Vodacom Bulls gave their hopes of claiming the SA Shield crown a significant boost with a bonus-point victory in Johannesburg on Saturday afternoon.
There was plenty of hype around the Lions’ attack going into the match, after they pushed the Bulls to the brink in the first meeting between the two teams this season in Pretoria.
However, after the Bulls claimed a 25-10 victory, White said that he felt that his side was never under pressure from the Lions.
“You guys are writing that up,” White said. “They don’t play any rugby in their half, they’re not dangerous, I mean they don’t put us under pressure once in multi-phase attack. This week and the last time.
“And it was obviously [Sanele] Nohamba’s sidestep in the first game.
“Today it was a chip kick and a bounce – it wasn’t like we were under the pump five, six, seven, eight phases. So, I don’t really agree that they run from everywhere and all that. They probably play the least amount of rugby of all the teams we play against.”
A poor first half from both teams saw the Bulls take just a 5-3 lead into half-time.
Curiously, the visitors decided not to return to the changerooms, instead opting to spend the interval on the sidelines.
“It’s quite bizarre, we are in the changerooms, and the aircons don’t work at Ellis Park, so I think we were probably a bit flat because we sat in the changerooms,” White explained.
“We thought we wouldn’t go out because it’s hot out on the field. Only found out the aircons aren’t working in our changeroom, so we were hotter in there than we were on the field.
“That’s when we decided to stay out at half time, it was better out there than it was in the changeroom.”
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