Bulls coach Jake White lamented some soft moments that contributed to his team's demise during their 37-27 United Rugby Championship (URC) loss to the Stormers in Cape Town.
“We showed moments of inexperience,” noted White before pointing to an instance where his team knocked on after a tap penalty close to the Stormers' try line on Friday.
Suleiman Hartzenberg's try might not have happened had the Bulls not botched a substitution.
“I was making a substitution and we got the timing wrong. We had one less defender on when they ran the ball to the far side from the kickoff,” White said.
“The guy who was supposed to stand there was on his way off. There was miscommunication about someone being on the other side.”
White kept pointing to the inexperience in his team. “We're still growing. We've got a lot of evolution to do. It's about understanding where you are in the game.”
He explained that every Stormers forward was older than his opposite number on the Bulls team and he, a little bizarrely, referred the home team's coaching staff as the most experienced in the competition.
The coach, however, was thrilled his team earned three scrum penalties against one of the most vaunted scrumming units in the competition. “That's a massive step up from where we were two years ago.”
Stormers counterpart John Dobson was pleased his team came out on top in a clash the opposition appeared more desperate to win. The Bulls are yet to beat the Stormers in the URC and they threw everything into this fixture to try to make that happen.
“It is an honour for us them taking the game so seriously,” said Dobson. “[The Bulls] resting those guys [last week], putting all their eggs in this basket, it is a massive compliment for us.
“Maybe to take revenge and put the URC final loss to bed. To win more convincingly is fantastic for us.”
Unlike White, who was left to lament his team's shortfalls, Dobson said his team had been exceptional in the manner they wore the mantle of defending champions in the URC. He pointed to the absence of Salmaan Moerat, Evan Roos, Herschel Jantjies and Warrick Gelant from the team that beat the Bulls in the final.
“For us to be second on the URC log knowing we are big targets, we've done well. But we do have a long way to go and it is going to be tough.”
Dobson is desperate for his team to maintain their momentum against the Lions next week. A win over the last team to beat them at home will also mark an entire year unbeaten in front of their fans in the URC.
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