Johannesburg - Jake White should feel extremely proud and highly vindicated after his team smashed their way through an important week of fixtures both in the United Rugby Championship (URC) and the Currie Cup.
The Bulls were in scintillating form on Friday night, crushing the Scarlets 57-12 - scoring nine tries in the process, a handful of which were breathless. Tireless lock Ruan Nortje was adjudged the Man of the Match, but in truth the entire matchday 23 should get praise for a brilliant, relentless performance.
“It was probably the best we have played,” White eulogized after the match. “You can be critical and say there were probably a few more tries we could have scored.
“People were asking what we want to get out of the game, and I said, ‘I want to see some interplay between the forwards and the backs,’ and I don’t think you are going to get better than that. When you get locks and props passing to each other, and an openside-flanker throwing a 40m pass to the wing, then you know things are coming together.”
The Bulls mentor did not hold back in his selection this past week, calling on the strongest team he could muster in a three-match schedule, all within seven days.
It resulted in crucial victories – first the men from Pretoria ground out a 29-24 victory over Munster, before leapfrogging the Sharks in the Currie Cup into a home semi-final berth, and then kept their hopes of the most favourable URC play-off placement alive with a peak outing against the Welsh franchise on Friday night.
It required the buy-in of all involved, and due to that commitment, the union was duly rewarded. A similar feat – arguably not as testing – will be required this coming week again as White and Co continue their quest to dominate the domestic front, while also making a charge up the URC log.
The Bulls face what has been a poor Lions outfit mid-week at Emirates Airline Park, and will then switch back to international duty when they face an equally lamentable Dragons of Wales next weekend. As evidenced by White’s actions this past week, he will no doubt select his most powerful side for both matches to keep the momentum flowing positively, while also avoiding any potential slip-ups.
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White said: “The thing about us now is how we manage (the players this week). I think this (past) week we proved with three tough games that we probably got it right – conditioning-wise and management-wise - but now we are going into another block.
“We probably got an easier week (this) week; when I say an easy week, I don’t mean the fixtures, but because we have two squads that we can pick from. We have a couple of guys coming back; (tighthead) Mornay Smith coming back, so I think we will probably have a little bit more depth in certain positions.
“We are just a bit thin on lock at this stage,” White admitted, “without Jacques du Plessis, without Sintu Manjezi, we are a little bit thin; and with Janko (Swanepoel) leaving the field last week.
“I am fully confident that the way we are managing the players and the challenges we are giving them, they have shown that they can handle it and hopefully we can continue that.”
The Bulls director of rugby also admitted that while he will be loath to make wholesale changes to his team, there will be changes nonetheless.
“Yes, I think in the next few weeks, we will have to make a few changes and hand out chances,” White explained in Afrikaans, singling out centre Diego Appollis and wing Stravino Jacobs as players who could possibly get an opportunity in the coming weeks.
Regardless of what White and his management team decide in the coming weeks, there can be no argument from without the camp that right now, the Bulls are in a purple patch. As pointed out by White, a few weeks ago the Pretoria-based side were 14th in the URC standings. Before the Sharks' encounter against Zebre last night, and the Stormers match against Cardiff Rugby on Sunday, they were sixth.
With six matches remaining, four of which are at home, and arguably in the midst of the toughest fortnight of fixtures of the season, the Bulls are seemingly well set to achieve their objectives.