Bulls plan to go one better in URC

The Bulls may have fallen at the final hurdle for the second time in three years last season, but coach Jake White believes they have bolstered their side with experienced players who will hopefully get them over the line this United Rugby Championship (URC) season.

The acquisition of players such as Aphiwe Dyantyi, Cobus Wiese, Nama Xaba and Sintu Manjezi are precisely the sort of players White is referring to — seasoned professionals who are in the prime of their career, late 20s and looking to power the team home.

Added to the young talent in their squad, White believes that this, plus the new Springboks in the team, will propel the side to greater heights this season.

“I don’t think we need to change anything from last season. I think, to be fair, it will happen over time,” said White.

“One thing we mustn’t forget is I’ve been saying to you since we started that our squad is still very young, and still inexperienced, and I think everyone would accept in our circles that we’ve exceeded our expectations the first three seasons.

“With the additions we have now, guys like Cobus Wiese who are older, Nama Xaba, Sintu Manjezi from Glasgow, they’re all older.

“The blend is right and the group we had together will age anyway.

“We have eight or nine guys in the Springbok set-up now this year, which is the first time in a long time this has happened.”

White said the changes would be more nuanced, rather than radical in the way the Bulls approach the game.

“It’s not a case of what do we change? Yes, I mean, we look at ways in which we approach certain things and things that work we will keep the same. And when we need to change, we change.

“Everyone in our club is on the same page and we’ve exceeded where we should be.

“And this will be a nice time for us to actually kick on and learn from the lessons we learnt, not only last year, for the last three seasons.”

White said the Bulls players who had featured in Rassie Erasmus’ Bok plans this season would be a boost to the Bulls when they returned.

“When was the last time we had relatively inexperienced players like Ruan Nortjé, Elrigh Louw and Canan Moodie playing against the All Blacks at Test level, and winning two Tests in a row,” White said.

“That kind of confidence and that kind of learning they got in those games will help us in playoff games in the URC and in the big games we need to win.

“In the short space of three URC campaigns, we have had nine Springboks in the squad and that will make us a lot stronger, because we can almost pick a Springbok in every position now.

“And that is a great place to be if you want to win the competition.”

SuperSport