Cape Town – Jake White coached the Springboks to a Rugby World Cup triumph and was in charge of the Sharks when they went down to 14 men and still beat the Crusaders in Christchurch.
But while he didn’t want to compare the New Zealanders to Irish giants Leinster, the Bulls’ thrilling 27-26 victory in Friday night’s United Rugby Championship semi-final in Dublin will be regarded as one of White’s greatest moments.
Not many outside Pretoria would have backed the Bulls to pull off an upset at the RDS Arena, but Marcell Coetzee and his team got stuck into the Leinster forwards with ferocious physicality and disrupted their rhythm, while also taking their chances to put points on the board.
Now they’re getting ready for a URC final against either the Stormers or Ulster in Cape Town or Belfast.
“It’s got to be up there. As I said before the game, incredible Leinster team, and dominated European rugby for the last couple of years. I looked at their record – 225 games in the PRO14 and lost 21. All those international players… What’s really pleasing is that we started with them in week one, and the learnings and understandings of what we needed to do the next time we played them was evident today,” the 58-year-old White said at the post-match press conference.
“That is why I am so excited – because I think it’s not just the fact that we beat them, but it’s that the group has grown so significantly in the last seven months.
“I think it’s unfair to start comparing one competition with another, and another team with Leinster. They deserve the credit that they’ve got. It’s a different comp, a different environment. The Crusaders have lots of All Blacks and Leinster a lot of Irish internationals.
“But any competition, playing away from home and beating the team that’s top of the log literally from week one, is obviously a massive achievement. It’s got to be up there – and I am saying often: this is one of the greatest European teams consistently, and the mere fact that you can come here and win is obviously a highlight for any player.”
The Bulls absorbed enormous pressure from Leinster as they made tackle after tackle in the first few minutes, and despite conceding an early try to Dan Sheehan – after a mix-up in defence between David Kriel and Madosh Tambwe – the visitors found their rhythm and took the fight to the opposition.
They won their lineouts and snatched a few from Leinster, they stood strong in the scrums, won the breakdown battle and made good ground with ball-in-hand via Coetzee, Man-of-the-Match Johan Grobbelaar and No 8 Elrigh Louw.
“I have been saying since I took over the Bulls, we have been very good in our forward play historically. I really enjoyed the interchanges today… I thought that first try, with the little play, we scored the try there – interplay between backs and forwards,” White said.
“Generally, I am very happy because of the fact that we’ve learnt so much. Our forward pack was outstanding – turned a couple of balls over. The key was not to give them any set-piece in the beginning, so we didn’t kick the ball out, and we kept the ball in.
“Someone said it just now – the weather, a couple of unforced errors by Leinster… They knocked the ball on a couple of times, which they don’t generally do, and that also I suppose helped us, because it broke the rhythm of their attack as well. So, it’s obviously a great win, but a couple of things did work in our favour, to be fair.
“As it turned out, it was always going to be one or two moments, and it was one point. I am just very thankful that we were on the winning side.”
IOL Sport