The 2024-25 rugby season is quickly becoming the ‘Neverending Story’ for the Bulls – and coach Jake White believes that it partly explains why they have blown hot and cold.
On the eve of Saturday’s United Rugby Championship Gauteng derby against the Lions at Loftus Versfeld (2pm kick-off), White proceeded to explain the challenges that his team have had to deal with to remain competitive.
It all started so swimmingly, with five out of six URC wins – with just the one-point away loss to the Scarlets in Wales.
Then it all went pear-shaped in the Champions Cup. A 27-5 defeat to Saracens in London was followed by a disappointing performance against Northampton in Pretoria as they went down 30-21.
The festive-season horror run continued as the Bulls were edged out 20-17 by the Sharks in Durban, which was followed by a weakened line-up receiving a 49-10 score-line from Castres in France.
White and his team rallied after that in what quickly become a desperate search for confidence, and they succeeding beating Stade Francais 48-7 in a dead-rubber Champions Cup encounter, before seeing off the Lions 35-22 in a bonus-point win at Ellis Park and the 33-32 thriller over the Stormers in Cape Town.
But another surprise loss followed as the Bulls – despite dominating upfront and facing 12 players at one stage – were somehow beaten 29-19 by the Sharks at Loftus Versfeld last weekend.
At least they are still third on the log with 35 points, but now trail second-placed Glasgow by seven and leaders Leinster by a whopping 17 – so the top-two spots are out of reach, unless No 1 and 2 lose a few games.
But while White said at his team announcement press conference that it was “not all gloom and doom” for their URC title chances, he spoke about the effects that the several away games have had on his players and selection plans – particularly the four SA derbies in four weeks, against the Stormers, Sharks, Lions and Stormers again – as well as the upcoming Challenge Cup playoffs.
Eyes on the main goal. pic.twitter.com/NXC7rwTLZg
— Official Blue Bulls (@BlueBullsRugby) February 19, 2025
“I will say it again: the chances of every team playing home semi-finals and finals are small. With Leinster so far ahead, it is almost impossible for them not to get the number-one position,” the former Springbok coach said.
“The interesting thing is that the team that ended on top didn’t win it over the last three years, and the home team only once.
“This week (against the Lions) isn’t bigger than last week, and it won’t be bigger than next week against the Stormers.
“We know that we have to play our best rugby in the last three weeks of the tournament, and that includes the playoffs. There is a good chance that you may not play at home in the semi-final and final, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t win the tournament.
“(The Lions game) is another big challenge. I think it’s also important to note that some of our players were on tour for nine weeks in Europe late last year – no other team’s players had to do that.
“We now have to play four derbies in four weeks, which no other top team have to do. For instance, Ulster don’t have to play Leinster, Munster and Connacht, and then Leinster again over four weeks.
“Then, we might be on a five-week tour if we win our next Challenge Cup game. So, in one cycle, we’ve been nine weeks away, four weeks of derbies in a row, and then five weeks away... It’s one of those years that is totally different to any other year, and totally different to any other team.
“So, it’s not an excuse, but you have to work it out. You will ask me why I picked this guy and not that guy, and it’s because we are in a very different position to any other team.
“We all speak about derbies, and we got four in a month, and no other team are going through that.
“The Stormers have a week off now, the Sharks had a week off before playing us. You have to understand that our challenge is totally different.
“It is a big game, but next week is going to be even bigger, for sure, as they (the Stormers) are getting a week off and must win. They say they want to make the top eight and top four. So, what is the difference?”
White also seemingly poked fun at the Stormers for releasing a lengthy injury list this week – which the Sharks do on a weekly basis as well – and said that with the almost 12-month rugby calendar for SA players, the Bulls simply can’t field their best team in every match.
However, he hasn’t rotated as much as he could’ve this season – but at least there was some progress in that regard for the Lions game as he brought back Sebastian de Klerk, Stedman Gans, Mpilo Gumede, Cobus Wiese and Gerhard Steenekamp in the starting side, and Alulutho Tshakweni and Keagan Johannes on the bench.
White, though, is still grappling with the injury-enforced absence of star No 8 Cameron Hanekom, who is nursing a calf issue, as well as Marcell Coetzee, while there are other long-term casualties such as Johan Goosen, Elrigh Louw and Ruan Nortjé – with Kurt-Lee Arendse also in Japan.
“We are not at a stage as a Bulls team where we can run out and dominate every team every Saturday. I’m not going to sit here and tell you we can, because we can’t. I just mentioned to you the uniqueness of this year,” White said.
“You would’ve noticed that I haven’t put a link out about how many injured players we’ve got – because it doesn’t matter.
“Every other union wants to tell me... I’m surprised they (the Stormers) didn’t put Carel du Plessis and Gert Smal on that list!
There are currently 15 of our players unavailable for selection due to injury.
— DHL Stormers (@THESTORMERS) February 19, 2025
📋 Full injury update https://t.co/5zzAoEu4Hv#iamastormer pic.twitter.com/omFHNQ4zuG
"I spoke to Gert the other day, and his health is not that great... I mean, Naas Botha also wasn’t available for this weekend! Frik du Preez is 89. Maybe I should look at him... I need locks as well!
“I’m a realist. We are playing more and more rugby, and more and more people are expecting us to hit our straps every Saturday, and that’s fantastic – but it’s not going to happen.
“All I’ve got to try and do as a coach is (identify) these are the weeks that we have to regroup, these are the weeks to use whatever lessons we have learnt.
“We might not win every game all the way to the end of the tournament. But I’m not for one minute sitting here and saying that it’s all doom and gloom – I mean that.
“But I can tell you a lot of other teams are also not hitting their straps, and some people will look at the last 20 minutes of games and go that’s unbelievable, because they came back and they had great fighting spirit – but they didn’t win.
“When we have fighting spirit and lose, then all of a sudden, it’s not important – it’s only important that you win. There are challenges that we have to handle, and if that means not getting it right every week, then we must accept that.”