‘We are better than that,’ says White after Bulls’ loss to Munster

From the chirps to the referee, the use of their medical staff and most importantly their composure under pressure, Munster were able to secure a critical victory at Loftus on Saturday, though Bulls coach Jake White feels his players did not produce their best effort. 

The Irish club claimed a 27-22 win in a bruising URC battle in which they also got the rub of the green from the officials, said White. 

“I told the players that we are better than that,” said the Bulls mentor. 

“We’ve been good at understanding how to get out of our half, and tonight we weren’t. We put ourselves under pressure a couple of times. I’m just frustrated. That is not how good we are, the players understand that, we will play better than that.”

There was no disputing the courage the Bulls showed particularly having to play the last half an hour of the match with 14 men, after flyhalf Johan Goosen, who’d produced a good all-round performance, was red-carded for a head clash with Munster’s substitute scrumhalf Craig Casey. 

“It changed the outcome of the game,” said White. The card came at a stage in the second half when the Bulls, having adopted a more direct approach after the interval had overturned a seven-point deficit and put themselves ahead 22-17 thanks to tries from Kurt-Lee Arendse and Johan Grobbelaar. 

It also chalked off a potential bonus-point try by Canaan Moodie and left White, the Bulls and the home supporters confused, particularly given that a head high clash at the end of the first half, involving Seb de Klerk and Calvin Nash, was not deemed worthy of review. 

“I understand that they are trying to make the game safer and trying to avoid concussions, but one week the ref decides it was a ‘rugby incident’ or that was a yellow card.”

It still took Munster until the 70th minute to score the go-ahead try through Conor Murray, while their one man advantage also negated the physical demands of playing at altitude. “It equalled things out (for them),” said White. 

Munster’s overall game management, which crossed the line occasionally particularly in how they communicated with referee Adam Jones, along with the frequent use of the medical staff, in the second half, to slow the pace of play was a sign, said White of their greater experience. 

“RG Snyman has won two world cups, they have an Irish captain (Peter O’Mahony) and they have Conor Murray who’s played for the British and Irish Lions. You take out Marcell (Coetzee), Marco van Staden and Ruan Nortje and all of a sudden we look young, in terms of game feel and experience, which is what they’ve got.

“You look at the calibre of player we are playing against, they are literally almost all internationals, but I still think we are capable of beating them,” said White.

The Bulls remain fourth on the table, but will need a strong finish to try to crack a top-two spot and hope for a longer run of home matches in the knockout phase of the tournament. 

“We are still alive in the comp. It’s gotta hurt that we lose, something we use to motivate ourselves for Monday’s training sessions. We have won a semifinal away in this competition against Leinster. The first priority in this comp is to get to the back end when you’ve got knockout rugby and that is different.”