Bulls know it is a mammoth task against Nienaber’s Leinster in final: White

Bulls coach Jake White is under no illusion of the mammoth task that awaits his team in the United Rugby Championship (URC) final against overwhelming favourites Leinster at Croke Park in Dublin on Saturday. 

However, he is confident his boys, who had to dig deep to beat the Sharks 25-13 in their semifinal at a packed Loftus stadium on Saturday, have what it takes to finally win the competition. 

Fascinatingly the final sees a clash of two former Springbok World Cup winning coaches — White, whose South Africa lifted the trophy in France in 2007 and Leinster boss Jacques Nienaber, who led the Boks to glory in the same country in 2023.

The Bulls lost their previous two URC cup finals to the Stormers in the inaugural tournament in 2022 and Glasgow Warriors last season, and they will be going all out to make it third time lucky. 

To beat Leinster, who will be competing in their first URC final, White said the Pretoria giants have to be at their best, take their chances and draw from past final experiences. 

“We have to stay in the fight and I don’t need to tell the players that,” he said after the win against the Sharks. 

“If you want something badly, you have to fight for it and we have to stay as competitive as we can throughout the 80 minutes. I genuinely believe there is enough intellectual property from the group from past cup final experiences. 

“I don’t want to dwell on much besides knowing we have to be at our best. A couple of weeks ago I read something asking if the Bulls are the chokers of South Africa. We have never played them [Leinster] in a final and it is all or nothing for both teams.” 

White said that the Bulls having experienced two URC finals is not going to count for much on Saturday. 

“We have lost two URC finals and they have not been in a final, now you are asking which psychological war we are going to win. I am sure I am going to read in the paper in Ireland that we have lost two finals. 

“That will be their way [of trying to unsettle us] but it doesn’t matter because whatever happened in the past is irrelevant. We are getting into an aeroplane to play against the form team and we must be ready. 

“This is a team that has only lost twice this season, it is laden with British & Irish Lions and Ireland internationals. They also have international players from other countries like RG Snyman [South Africa] and Jordie Barrett [New Zealand]. 

“This is probably the toughest task for us over the last few years, but I have confidence. Every time I have asked these guys to put their hands up in these games they have got it right.” 

Leinster players who are part of the British and Irish Lions squad for the tour of Australia are Tadhg Furlong, Rónan Kelleher, Joe McCarthy, Andrew Porter, James Ryan, Dan Sheehan, Jamison Gibson-Park, Hugo Keenan, James Lowe and Garry Ringrose. 

The Irish club are led by a master schemer in senior coach Nienaber, who, working alongside then director of rugby Rassie Erasmus, steered the Springboks to 2023 World Cup victory in France. Few opposition coaches can be better placed to analyse White's Bulls.

Nienaber intimately knows the Bulls' Boks stars Willie Le Roux, Canan Moodie, Embrose Papier, Cameron Hanekom, Ruan Nortje, Marcell Coetzee, Wilco Louw, Johan Grobbelaar and Jan Hendrik Wessels. White said the Bulls may change a few things to blindside Nienaber and his team. 

“There is so much analysis done behind the scenes and information-sharing that you don’t need people in the circle to know what people do or don’t do. There are hours and hours where video analysts work on players, defence systems and all those things. 

“He [Nienaber] will know all these players like the back of his hand because he picked them for the Springboks, but we might change a few things and that is the nice thing about sport.”