Africa-Press – South-Africa. Bulls director of rugby Jake White was at pains to defend his young players following another defeat in the United Rugby Championship (URC) on Saturday evening against Munster.
The Bulls lost 31-17 in Ireland in what were tricky conditions. The loss sees the Bulls drop to 6th after five games played, but White said he won’t be losing sleep over his side’s performances over the last two weekends.
“I don’t think we were outmuscled. I thought we played well at times and defensively, we were quite good at times,” White said.
“I was proud about how the guys fought back [from 17-3 down at half time]. It’s a good learning curve for the team. It’s not ideal because no one likes to lose but we were here this time last year.
“We lost to Leinster in the first game and ended up playing them in the semi-final.”
Indeed, the Bulls were losing finalists in the inaugural competition and White believes his team will still be able to pack a punch this season.
“We’re still a long way from where we need to be.
“I’m a realist about where we are as a team. This team has shown they can play … It’s not the end of the world. This time last year, we were in the same situation.”
For the Bulls’ rugby trust, it’s about a process-driven goal which will yield the necessary results in no time.
“Touring is very difficult. Away and home records are much in favour of the home teams and the reality is that they’ve got to learn and they can only learn by being put in these high-pressure situations because I know over time, they will get better.
“We’ll get it right. We’ll learn from this and become a better team.”
White is waiting on injury updates from Johan Goosen – who seems to have suffered a head knock – and Cornal Hendricks who has a groin concern.
The international coach is taking the losses, first to Glasgow Warriors and then Munster – in his stride:
Fortunately for White, the competition isn’t won or lost over two matches.
“This competition is long. We’ve just got to be alive at the backend and anything’s possible and we’ve got to play our best rugby at the backend of the competition like we did last season.
“We’ve got to stay positive. We’ve got a very young group and last season we exceeded our expectations and we did well and I know we can do well.”
The travelling Bulls will face Benetton on Friday evening.
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