Despite his side putting up a spirited fight to give the Lions a scare in their Rugby United Championship clash at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday, Bulls coach Jake White could not hide his disappointment at his side’s defeat at home.
The Bulls lost to their neighbors, the Lions, 25-29, in an exciting game.
The Lions had led 20-3 after 24 minutes but with just over a quarter of the game remaining the Bulls had fought back to lead 25-23.
Two penalties from man of the match Sanele Nohamba though late in the game allowed the Lions to win 29-25 and end a 10-match losing streak against South African opposition in the competition.
‘Not desperate enough’
White was particularly disappointed with his team’s first half performance.
“It’s a small thing … a beat, a high tackle … we won a penalty in the half, and a kick to the 22 …” bemoaned White after.
“In the second half we looked desperate to come back, but the first half … I don’t think we were desperate enough. At first it was just words, so I was disappointed.”
The Bulls also lost to the Stormers at home two weekends ago and before that they also lost to the Scarlets (away) at the URC. They also suffered defeat against Lyon (away) in the Champions Cup at the end of January.
‘We failed’
“The bottom line is that we will be measured in results. This is a loss, and we cannot pay for the loss. We have to win, we want to be a winning team, a winning province. We failed the test today,” said Putih.
The only positive for the former Springbok coach was the fight shown by the players in the second half as well as the four tries the team scored.
“The positive thing is that we stuck to the fight and scored four tries, and one was disallowed,” White said.
“We have to stay positive. It will turn around. Look at the Stormers who lost to Benetton last year and went on to win the competition.
The rest of the game
Despite the weekend loss, the Bulls are still sixth in the URC points table and have their playoff hopes in their hands. They have three games – against Ulster (away), Zebre (home) and Leinster (home).
“We have to make sure we can play well in the remaining games. We want to win all three games to make sure we can qualify for the playoffs, and not depend on other teams doing something in the last round,” said White.
The Bulls also have a Champions Cup match to plan, on April 2, against Toulouse.
In some good news, the Bulls will welcome back Springbok wingers Canan Moodie and Kurt-Lee Arendse, who have been at the national training camp, this week.