Bulls coach Jake White welcomes URC break for players to recharge batteries

Bulls coach Jake White has welcomed the month-long United Rugby Championship (URC) break, as it will allow players to recharge their batteries and those who are injured to return to action.

The URC takes a back seat as international rugby moves to centre stage over the next month with the Springboks starting their end-of-year tour of Europe with a tasty clash against Ireland in Dublin on Saturday.

The Boks move to Marseille on November 12 to take on France, followed by Italy in Genoa on November 19 and the crunch clash against England in London on November 26.

“There are a few guys who have niggling injuries like Elrigh Louw and Johan Grobbelaar had surgery, maybe when we come back we should have Cyle Brink and Jacques du Plessis.

“Hopefully the break is well timed for us and it is so much better because we have done well over the last few weeks and got our campaign back on the road,” said White after the Bulls’ 40-27 URC win over the Sharks at Loftus on Sunday.

White said sometimes players need to get away from the rigours of hard competition to refresh.

“It is a tough competition, sometimes you do need a bit of a break to go away switch off a bit and hopefully when we get back we will switch on again and get ourselves ready for two home games.”

The Bulls’ bonus-point win over the Sharks moved them to third spot. White welcomed the result but he was concerned that his team were not clinical enough.

“They asked me before the game in an interview what I thought was going to win the game and I said the first 20 minutes, and I was probably spot on because we were outstanding in first 20 minutes.

“We didn’t finish well, there were a couple of times where there was a forward pass and knock on in their 22 area; we probably got the line-out play wrong where we went around to the front when we should have just stayed with the maul.

“It is never easy against the Sharks, they are a multimillion-rand team and it is nice to get a win against them.”

Sharks director of rugby Neil Powell also lamented their individual errors.

“We would have loved to be more clinical with what we wanted to execute. We had a few opportunities in the first half that I felt we could have put more pressure on the Bulls,” he said.

“Unfortunately, we were not clinical enough in the execution of individual roles. It is always a game of momentum and confidence — if you can’t hang on to the confidence and momentum when you have it, then teams like the Bulls will punish you in the second half.

“We need to address our game management and how we can keep our momentum, and fighting for the full 80 minutes.”