Africa-Press – South-Africa. Bulls Director of Rugby and head coach Jake White said “inexperience” was a factor in his side’s 37-27 loss to the Stormers in Friday night’s pulsating United Rugby Championship (URC) clash at DHL
Stadium. In an epic North v South derby that will be remembered for years to come, the Stormers rocked their visitors with three second-half tries in five minutes to deliver the knockout punch after the sides were deadlocked
at 13-13 after the first half. The Stormers were breathtaking in a period of play that had 30 000 at the iconic stadium roaring in full voice. The Bulls, though, were flat-footed and out of answers, and
the result means that they have lost all four of their URC fixtures against the champion Stormers since the beginning of last year’s competition. In his post-match press conference on Friday night, White
fielded a range of questions that delved into the performance on the night, his selection policy and the ever-growing rivalry with the Stormers and their coach
John Dobson. The Bulls had played 20 minutes of the first half with 14 men after yellow cards to Marco van Staden and Elrigh Louw, so they would have been pleased to be level at the break, but the blitz delivered from the home
side between the 49th and 53rd minutes was too much to recover from. “I think we just showed moments of inexperience,” said White after the match. “That’s the only disappointing thing I can think of.
There was a tap penalty on their line, where we’ve got five or six plays that we run, but we tap the ball and run and knock it on. “Then I was making a substitution, and we got the
timings wrong where there was one less defender on the far side when they ran the ball from the kick-off [for Suleiman Hartzenberg’s try], so I suppose that
was inexperience in that there was a miscommunication. “It was one of those games. We scored three tries to four, but we looked a little bit inexperienced with some of the actions that we
had.” White then pointed to the Dobson-led coaching staff of the Stormers, arguing that they had far more cohesive experience at this level, while he also argued that Dobson did not have to consider the balancing act of
managing a Currie Cup team as he did as Bulls Director of Rugby (DoR). Dobson will, however, be working closely with the Western Province Currie Cup team this season.
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“We’re inexperienced still, and we’re still growing. We’ve got a lot of evolution to do. The Stormers are probably the most
experienced coaching staff in the whole competition. They’ve been together for eight, ten years and some of them with the juniors as well,” said White.
“John Dobson doesn’t coach Currie Cup. I am the Director of Rugby. I have to coach and make sure all the juniors, seniors and
Currie Cup guys are available to play. If I was only coaching the senior side, then I wouldn’t worry about who was available for the Currie Cup because it
wouldn’t be my brief. I think it’s important for people to understand my brief as DoR. “Western Province didn’t make the playoffs last year in the Currie Cup. Those are decisions I have to make and explain to my board.
There are 32 games left. Considering some of the Springboks are out with World Cup camps, you’re going to have to box very clever with which teams you want to
use and how many players you’re going to use.” White’s selection policy has been placed under the microscope in recent weeks after he rested several of his first-choice players
for back-to-back European Champions Cup weekends, effectively saving them for this game. Still, he insists the success or failure of that rotation can not be measured by this result but rather by the performance over the
season as a whole. This one hurts, though, as did the 2021/22 tournament final. “We have lost four times to the Stormers in a row, and we haven’t beaten them in this competition yet. It was important, and for any
team that plays away in these derby games, you want to get the win,” said White. “We can beat them. You can look at stats any way you want. Since I’ve been at the Bulls, we’ve beaten them more times in Currie Cup,
Super Rugby Unlocked and all those games. It just depends on what you want to look at. “They’re a good team. They’re champions of this tournament. They’ve got experienced players, a coaching staff that has been
together for eight years, and it’s a massive advantage when you’re competing at the level we’re competing at.” When asked if he had any words for his opposite number Dobson, White replied: “Well done.” The Bulls are next in action when they travel to Durban to take on the Sharks in the URC on 31 December.
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