Jake White says the Vodacom Bulls don’t need much motivation for Saturday’s URC quarter-final against Edinburgh, and potential semi duel with the Sharks, at Loftus.
Speaking to the media in Pretoria on Tuesday, the Bulls director of rugby emphasised the significance of facing teams that have already beaten the Herd this season.
White’s charges beat Edinburgh in their URC round 2 clash before the Scottish outfit turned the tables with a EPCR Challenge Cup last-eight win at Hive Stadium.
Saturday’s winner at Loftus could face the Sharks in next week’s semi-final if John Plumtree’s men – who took down the Bulls on the Highveld in February – overcome Munster in Durban.
WATCH: Edinburgh embrace Bulls’ challenge
“Edinburgh beat us a couple of weeks ago, so it’s not much I need to say because I think the players understand, we play Sharks next week or Munster if we win obviously, and I’m just saying those were two teams that beat us this year,” White was quoted by IOL Sport.
“Sharks and Edinburgh have beaten us. So, there’s not much that I need to say in terms of getting them ready.”
“We finished well against them. That gives me hope,” he added. “There’ll be a lot of things that I’ll look at that game and know that if I’m a little bit more… I don’t want to say streetwise, but a little bit more aware of what happened last time, it may help us in our favour.”
White drew parallels between recent setbacks and the lessons learnt from two URC final defeats, notably last season’s loss to Glasgow Warriors at home.
“We also know that we lost to Glasgow in the final, because we let them score on half time with a penalty we gave away. And we didn’t score in the last minute of the game with a driving lineout,” he said.
“So, there’s a lot of other lessons that we could have learnt. For me, it’s about 80 minutes and about getting all those little things right anyway.”
PLUS: Four Boks in race for URC’s young gun award
White again acknowledged the impact of losing Springbok and former Bulls star Cornal Hendricks, who died from a heart attack two weeks ago.
“[The pain] of losing in the final? Yeah, but also of losing Cornal Hendricks. So, let’s not underestimate that,” he noted. “I said it many times that what happens, sometimes you need a why and a reason.
“We’re going to do something for him [Hendricks] in the next three weeks on our jerseys. And the message is very simple: it’s not just a symbolic thing. It must be an action thing as well.
“Hopefully it’ll be a reason for us to play better, and a reason for us to make sure if we get to these knockout games, we play as well as we can.”
White confirmed that flyhalf Johan Goosen and loosehead prop Gerhard Steenekamp remain unavailable, though Goosen could return for the semis if the Bulls advance.
Photo: Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images
