Cape Town – The fact that the Bulls still have their United Rugby Championship fate in their own hands – and that Kurt-Lee Arendse and Canan Moodie will be back soon – are two factors that are helping coach Jake White to have a positive outlook despite Saturday’s 29-25 loss to the Lions.
Right now, the Bulls are not in a good place. They have lost four matches in a row – three in the URC and one in the Champions Cup – with the last two coming against South African opposition in the Stormers and Lions.
What will be most concerning for White is the repetition of errors from previous games that reared its ugly head against the Lions at Loftus.
Despite scoring four tries to clinch a bonus point, the Bulls had several other opportunities to add a few more, while they gifted the Johannesburg side easy points with a string of penalties that scrumhalf Sanele Nohamba drilled through the uprights.
They appeared to be off the pace in the first half as the Lions surged into a 20-3 lead, and while they did well to hit back in the second half to sneak ahead at 25-23, the visitors had the greater energy to close out the victory.
“You’ve got to give penalties to other teams when they can’t get points, and we probably gave away too many where they took the points. But if that team had kicked to the corner, which other teams might have backed themselves to do … They took the three points, and as it turned out, it worked in their favour,” White said.
“I sit here and my summary is very simple: we should’ve won, we could’ve won. We can’t let any team get to 20-3 up, especially not a team that’s desperate. They’ve got a lot of things to fight for, and credit to them. They showed us that they can win a game like that, so well done to them.
“One of the things that happened is that we were 12-3 up in the Stormers game, and then when the Stormers took the lead, we started to panic. This time, we were 20-3 down, and if I had to take a positive out, we stuck in the fight and ended up taking the lead in the 65th minute. So, that would be a positive.
“And the fact that we scored four tries – and had one disallowed, so that’s five tries – is also a positive.”
White recalled the struggles that the URC champions the Stormers endured early in their campaign last season, and he believes that it proves that the Bulls still have a chance to win the competition.
They are in sixth position with 43 points, and with the Stormers having already clinched the SA Shield following the Lions’ victory, it’s all about securing a quarter-final spot for the Bulls in their three remaining matches – against Ulster away on March 25, Zebre at home on April 15 and Leinster, also at home, on April 22.
They will also have to contend with the Champions Cup round of 16 clash against French giants Toulouse away on April 2.
“When I look back at the season, it is one of those seasons where I think we’ve got to just keep staying positive. The thing will turn … If you remember last season, the Stormers lost to Benetton, and the Stormers ended up winning the competition,” the former Bok coach said.
“So, there are three games left, and we’ve just got to make sure that we play as well as we can in those three games.
“We have made it tough for ourselves now – Leinster and Ulster are two very big teams to play against … I will have a look and see at all the other results, but at this point in time, if we win those three games, we are still in the playoffs.
“So, we still have our destiny in our own hands, and what we don’t want to do is to get to the last weekend and we need people to beat other people for us to make the playoffs. So, as long as you’ve got that as a coach and a team, you’ve got hope.”
IOL Sport