Jake White has accepted responsibility for the Vodacom Bulls’ latest home defeat at the hands of DHL Western Province, but promised he will be working to get his side back on track. DYLAN JACK reports.
The Vodacom Bulls surrendered an eight-point, second-half lead to make an 0-2 start to the 2023 Currie Cup. The result also condemned the Vodacom Bulls to a sixth straight loss in all competitions.
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White appeared in the post-match press conference on Friday night alongside Currie Cup head coach Edgar Marutlulle and accepted that he, as director of rugby, was to blame for the poor run of results.
“The reason I am here is that as director of rugby this week I took this group of players. I wanted to use this as an opportunity to prepare for next week. It would be unfair for Edgar to take all the negativity of this result,” White said.
“No excuses, but I am trying to reflect and be philosophical about where we are as a group. As a union, we have been dominating for the last three seasons at junior and senior level. I sit here and think, what has gone wrong?
“I suppose the answer for me is, firstly I was sick in December. Again, that is not an excuse, but it made me a little bit disconnected from the group. I thought, and this was my call, changing the team, giving some guys time off – because last season was just too tough on everyone. It’s never an exact science.
“When you get into a spiral, winning or losing, players in any sport, they might not admit it, but they do go into their shells. It happens. It’s definitely not where we want to be.
“This is the first time as a group that we are under a little bit of pressure. It’s a different pressure to what we have ever experienced as a group. We have to make sure we get through this. It doesn’t mean it will change in one week. It just means we have to get through it as a union.”
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White explained that he hoped that by fielding a strong team in both Currie Cup fixtures, the Vodacom Bulls would be better prepared for their crucial away clash against Ulster in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship.
“That’s what I would like to think the benefit of this is, next week we play Ulster. Now the guys have some contact under their belts and that’s going to be another tough game.
“I am the guy in charge, I have to make decisions. Most of the decisions I have made in the last couple of years have worked in our favour.
“Maybe if I was with the team the whole time I would have change my mind and decided to play the same team every week. There’s a long plan for me here. I am trying to develop a team.
“We lost Marcell Coetzee, Walt Steenkamp, Madosh Tambwe, Arno Botha. We didn’t have Canan and Kurt-Lee today. I know the other teams also have to deal with that, but maybe the significant losses we had in terms of our personnel had a much bigger impact on our group of players.
“As I said, I am trying to be philosophical and work this out, how you can go from so dominant and so good, so brave into being at times, looking uncohesive. I have to find out what it is we are missing and that is part of my job, to make sure we have to try and get it right.”
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White admitted he had no ammunition to fire back at the Vodacom Bulls’ critics, but promised his side would keep fighting in every competition to the bitter end.
“There is nothing I can say. The reality is when you are on a roll and everything is going well for you, then you get massive amounts of confidence and when it’s not going well, then you struggle. We have supporters who want to win and we want to make them proud.
“We also have to be man enough to admit that decisions we have made, and I’m the guy that made those decisions, they have either worked or they haven’t worked. The only way we will find out is when we get to the end of all the campaigns and sit back and ask what we did wrong. Sometimes you get it right and sometimes you get it wrong.
“It’s not over yet. We have still got games against Ulster, Zebre and Leinster coming up. We have to try and make sure we get results to get into the playoffs. We have a massive game against Toulouse, absolutely massive. They are historically the strongest Champions Cup side that have ever played. So there is going to be a great deal of learning happening here, whether we win or lose.
“I am just very lucky that I have people above me and around me who understand that sport works like this. It’s not a pleasant time for anybody. That’s why I want to reinforce that I can’t expect a coach who had nothing to do with this group of players this week [to take the blame], just because I wanted to use this week to prepare for what is ahead.”
Photo: Steve Haag/Gallo Images