The Vodacom Bulls launch their 2023-24 campaign this weekend, and Jake White has been candid about the lessons learned from Rassie Erasmus in being more adventurous.
Director of rugby, White is preparing the Bulls to face Scarlets at Loftus Versfeld on Sunday for what is expected to be an enticing Vodacom URC first-round clash.
He is taking cues from the success of fellow World Cup-winning Bok coach Erasmus, now SA’s director of rugby, as White admits that in the past, he may have held onto the same group of players for too long and been reluctant to make changes.
Now, the former Montpellier mentor is determined to break away from that pattern and be more flexible with his team selections.
“I probably hung on to the same group of players for as long as I could, and probably didn’t show flexibility in selections – probably didn’t trust the fact that I could make changes,” White was quoted by IOL Sport.
“I’ve decided this year, with the pre-season and interchanging players … For this weekend, to go with the tried-and-tested from last season is probably the comfortable thing, but to get out of my comfort zone and pick guys who maybe haven’t played, and try different combinations.
“If you look at what Rassie’s done, it’s a phenomenal thing to see. During the course of the year, they [the Boks] changed their flyhalves, they changed their front row … They weren’t scared to put different combinations on, and there is a success to it.
“That’s why I don’t want to rest on one group of players. Rassie has shown that, and the Stormers showed that last year, too.
“It’s not that I didn’t know it, but I was probably a little bit bang [scared] to do it because I didn’t feel like I had prepared them well enough to put them on the field.”
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In 2022-23, The Herd were undeniably potent on attack, scoring the second-most points in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship and the most in the Currie Cup.
However, the Bulls’ Achilles’ heel was their defence, as the Pretoria outfit conceded the most points among South African franchises.
White acknowledges that defensive lapses contributed to their trophyless season, and to address this concern, recruited experienced coaches Jean Tiedt and Gary Gold in the off-season.
“We want to win something, and make sure that our fans are proud of the fact that we win trophies,” White added.
“From a game point of view, we scored the second-most points in the URC, and the most points in the Currie Cup. But the one area where we probably let ourselves down was that we conceded the most points out of the South African franchises.
“That’s one area we’ve worked on, and we’ve got Jean Tiedt and Gary Gold coming in as defence coaches. We will probably put an emphasis on that, just in terms of conceding penalties, conceding points … probably being soft in allowing teams to score points against us.
“So, that is an area we will be working hard on: to make it tougher for teams to score points against us.”
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