Going down 27-22 to Munster was a bitter pill to swallow for the Bulls, but Jake White insists that his team are “still alive” in the United Rugby Championship play-off race.
White feels that while Johan Goosen’s second-half red card for head contact at Loftus Versfeld “definitely ... changed the outcome of the game”, the Bulls didn’t play well enough overall, with the URC defending champions more streetwise in every respect in pulling off a memorable triumph.
The Bulls have now dropped to fourth on the URC log with 46 points, while Munster are third on 48, behind leaders Leinster (54) and Glasgow (53).
The Pretoria side has four more league matches to go – against the Ospreys on Saturday, Glasgow on May 11, Benetton a week later (all at home), and then the Sharks in Durban at the start at June.
Those are all tough encounters, with the Ospreys beating the Stormers 27-21 in Cape Town at the weekend, so instead of pushing for a home semi-final and final, the Bulls are now suddenly in a dogfight to just stay in the top eight.
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“As I said to the players now, we’re better than that,” White said.
“I thought that the first 18 minutes of the second half was the way we wanted to play, and then we got a red card, which obviously is difficult. I can still say that we were in the game until the last play with 14 men, which says a lot for the fighting spirit that they showed.
“Take nothing away – Munster won the competition last year, and beat the Stormers in Cape Town, which no one has got right. I still think if we play properly, we are good enough to beat them.
“We’ll regroup … and we are still alive in the comp, guys. It’s got to hurt, that we lose. And it’s got to be something we motivate ourselves for in the training sessions.”
White will have to take a close look at his selections against the Ospreys, particularly the loose trio, which didn’t gel as a combination in the absence of the injured Marcell Coetzee and Marco van Staden, while Ruan Nortjé’s absence at lock is also being felt.
Elrigh Louw had a strong game individually, but tends to play more like a blindside flank than a No 8, which requires more soft skills than just brute force.
The experiment with Cameron Hanekom at openside flank didn’t really work either, because he is at his best as a free-running ball carrier off the back of the scrum.
With Nortjé unlikely to be ready for the Ospreys game, a better option would be to move young tyro Reinhardt Ludwig to No 5 lock alongside Ruan Vermaak, as taking on the grizzled Munster lock duo of RG Snyman and Tadhg Beirne at the weekend was asking way too much of 19-year-old JF van Heerden.
The Bulls essentially had three big ball carriers in their loose trio in Hanekom, Ludwig and Louw – and Mpilo Gumede off the bench – with no one playing towards the ball in a fetcher role.
So, the experienced Nizaam Carr should be considered at No 6 against the Ospreys, while his leadership would also be handy as White mentioned that Munster’s gamesmanship and chats with the referee – with veteran Peter O’Mahony a master in that regard – was something the Bulls had missed.
🙌 The match-winning moment for @Munsterrugby, courtesy of Conor Murray! #BKTURC | #URC | #BULvMUN | #RaceToTheEight pic.twitter.com/Cv6iCoiSHr