Leighton Koopman
Jake White wanted a reaction from his Bulls troops after their loss to Munster a weekend ago.
Judging by their overpowering 61-24 win of over the Ospreys, White received exactly the response he challenged his side to produce as they got their United Rugby Championship (URC) campaign back on track with the convincing victory.
The Ospreys could have been a banana skin for the Bulls and they headed to Pretoria with plenty of confidence from a good win over the Stormers. But it took Loftus Versfeld only about 40 minutes of rugby to celebrate a bonus point for tries scored and after half-time, the home side continued to step on the gas as they ran their visitors ragged.
A red card halted their momentum against Munster, but on Saturday, they saddled up the horse again and galloped past their Welsh opponents with minimal fuss to stay among the top four teams in the URC.
The victory also means the Bulls can still end up among the top two sides, although they will need to win their remaining three games and hope Glasgow, Leinster and Munster pick up some losses along the way.
White was pleased with his side’s performance and didn’t want to be too critical after a performance like that, but he felt that maybe they should not have conceded three tries.
“You want a good team, who if they lost the week before, sort of want to take the loss out on the next opponent. That is what we saw,” White said of his team’s mauling of the Ospreys.
“Someone asked me during the week, ‘What are you looking to get out of the game?’ I said I need a reaction.
“I need to see where the players are and they can’t just talk after last week and say, ‘Jeez guys, we’ve let each other down’. And I was asked how am I going to check (if there was a response). I said when the 80 minutes (against the Ospreys) were done.
“You’re not going to get much more than that. You always want the perfect game as a coach, but to score 60 points probably with two or three tries disallowed, ripped out on the tryline, it could have been 80. There’s no way you score 80 points in a URC game and not play well.
“You’re always critical about things. I wouldn’t have liked to leak three tries like we did, but there was a lot of fight at the end to make sure they didn’t get another one.”
The Vodacom @BlueBullsRugby in transition 😍
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That Willie Le Roux offload 🤤@Vodacom | #URC | #RaceToTheEight | #BULvOSP pic.twitter.com/nIjj4SbgyS
In the absence of the suspended flyhalf Johan Goosen, his replacement Chris Smith gave a good account of himself on the attack and with his kicking boot.
While the entire backline enjoyed the attacking opportunities created, mostly thanks to the hard work of the pack of forwards, with captain Elrigh Louw at the forefront, it was centre David Kriel who stole the show.
He scored a try of his own and had a hand in three other five-pointers as the utility back put in a player-of-the-match performance. Seven of the nine tries came via the backs as they ran the Ospreys off the park.
“Everyone thought that without Goosen we might go the other way (play a forwards-based game). So, that was maybe a surprise element,” White said.
“Credit to Chris Rossouw (backs coach) for the way we attacked. The variations in our attack also helped Chris (Smith, flyhalf) to make the right calls.”
The URC will take a break over the next week, which gives the Bulls some recovery time as they prepare for a visit from the Glasgow Warriors, who are at the top of the log.
White’s troops can consolidate their place in the top four with a victory over the Scottish front-runners, and there is the chance of going third should Munster fall in their Irish derby with Connacht next weekend.