Jake White said Friday’s clash between the Vodacom Bulls and Leinster in Dublin is a “great benchmark” for the men from Pretoria.
The Bulls secured a 31-10 bonus-point victory against Dragons in round 12 of the Vodacom URC on Saturday that leaves them four points behind leaders Leinster in second place.
White’s charges showed grit until the final whistle, scoring two tries in the last five minutes at Rodney Parade, and the director of rugby is relishing the opportunity to cross swords with the Irish giants at the RDS Arena.
Speaking post-match in Wales, White told reporters: “We got a massive game this [Friday]. We want to make sure we give ourselves the chance to finish in the top two because we know how important home playoffs are.
“The match is a great benchmark for us to see where we are as a group. It is an away game against a really good team.
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“The bulk of their team played for the Irish team who just won back-to-back Six Nations, and a bulk of that team has beaten the Boks in the World Cup.
“So I know it’s going to be a great Test match for us and a test to see how great we are.”
Kurt-Lee Arendse, Mpilo Gumede, Embrose Papier and Johan Grobbelaar crossed the whitewash for the Bulls with Chris Smith kicking 11 points. Dragons competed strongly but the visitors always had the additional power and that touch of class to ensure.
“The Dragons knew they were not going to have their Test players back. They knew they had to get on with it and had three to four weeks to prepare for us and that’s what made it so difficult,” White added.
“They were clever in the way they played against us and everything was a contest. They didn’t let us get any rhythm, We have been playing well from quick ball and that was one of the games they targeted. Set-piece was also difficult to get the ball out.
“The bottom line is we found a way to get through that game with problems we haven’t experienced before. It was the first time a team did certain things to use scrum time and breakdown time, but we found a way.”
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