‘It wasn’t all doom and gloom’: Bulls coach Jake White after drubbing by Leinster in URC

For the Bulls, it's a classic case of out of the pan and straight into the fire. 

Still smarting from their heavy 47-14 United Rugby Championship (URC) defeat to Leinster at the RDS Arena on Friday night, they are faced with another tough Champions Cup clash against French giants Lyon at Loftus next weekend. 

Leinster thrashed the Bulls where they outscored them with seven tries to one to stay on top of the URC standings and this defeat means the second-placed Bulls may be overtaken by Glasgow Warriors who visit the Scarlets. 

Reflecting on their loss to Leinster, Bulls coach Jake White was gracious while pointing out they lost to a better team. 

“There are a lot of learnings we got in this match that was played in front of a supportive crowd and we played against a good team with pace and tempo,” he said. 

“Reinhardt Ludwig is 21 and look at the pack he was playing against at the end of the match. I have no doubt that we will get better, it is possibly a good lesson for us to play Leinster before we play Lyon in a Champions Cup game. 

“If we get through next week, we play the winner of Northampton and Munster in the next round of Champions Cup and that is not going to make it easier. The following week we have Munster again in the URC, literally the next month is not going to be different to what we experienced against Leinster in terms of intensity, accuracy and pressure. 

“Those are lessons we have to put them into our planning and in our preparations this week and make the players understand that we have to handle those situations against good teams.” 

White added that it was not all doom and gloom because they created good moments in the game. 

“We need time, there is no doubt in my mind. The one thing that Leinster taught me is the ability to go into good transition from defence into attack. It was phenomenal, every time we made a mistake they punished us. 

“If you recall, we probably had three to four chances where we had line breaks in their 22 and we never came away with a try. Every time they transitioned from a bad kick or turnover ball they came away with the points. 

“There were opportunities and there were a couple of things that worked, the scrumming in the beginning was outstanding, our line-out in the first half was accurate and we did create chances. 

“At the end of the game we were five metres from their try line again. It wasn’t all doom and gloom because not too many people come from the RDS Arena or Aviva Stadium and beat Leinster. 

“They went up another gear, I went to the dressing room to congratulate them because their national team won back-to-back Six Nations and they beat South Africa at the World Cup. 

“Their club side is definitely the benchmark of where we all want to get to and we were lucky enough to win here last season and we must be humble when we lose. We have to understand that we have to learn.”