Jake White ‘very happy’ after Bulls clinch bonus point win at Ellis Park

Bulls coach Jake White was a happy man after his charges walked away from their United Rugby Championship (URC) cross-Jukskei derby with a full house of points after beating the Lions 25-10 at Ellis Park on Saturday afternoon.

It was the second straight Highveld derby clash between the two rivals after they met at Loftus at the end of January, with the Bulls just edging the Lions 30-28 on that occasion.

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Another close match was expected, but after an extremely scrappy first half saw the Bulls leading 5-3 at halftime, they lifted their game in the second half to score three more tries, against one from the hosts, to clinch a comfortable win in the end.

“We are very happy. To come here and get a bonus point was great. Especially after the last game where it went down to a kick missed by (Jordan) Hendrikse (after the hooter) for us to win,” said White.

“To turn that around three weeks later, to get four tries, a bonus point and a win, obviously not many teams have come here and done that. We are obviously very happy with that.”

Second half impact

Part of the reason for the Bulls improvement in the second half was the impact of their subs who came on and made a big impression on the game.

 Former Springboks Johan Goosen, Akker van der Merwe and Marcell Coetzee were all on the visitors bench and made big impacts when they came on the field, helping their side power away in the final quarter.

“I was very happy with their impact. We are getting to the point where we have guys like Goosen and Akker, two (former) Springboks on our bench. That’s really nice to have.

“It reiterates what I have been saying. You need that kind of calibre of player in your squad if you want to play at the highest level. We saw what they did. Both of them came on, played really well and took charge. Akker was fantastic in that second half when he came on.

“So we are happy with the way the game ended. I wasn’t happy with the first half. We were a little bit flat.”

Scathing assessment

White was also quite scathing of the Lions game plan, which consisted of them kicking onto the Bulls constantly, and admitted that his side had been put under very little pressure in either of the two games between the sides.

“They don’t play any rugby in their half. They didn’t put us under pressure once in multiphase attack in this game and the last one (at Loftus),” explained White.

“In the first game it was Nohamba’s sidestep, the overthrown lineout and we dropped the ball over our own tryline (for the Lions tries). Today it was a chip kick and a bounce that got them in.

“It wasn’t like we were under the pump, five, six, seven, eight phases. So I don’t agree that they run from everywhere. They probably play the least amount of rugby out of all of the teams we play against.”