Ken Borland

Although Bulls coach Jake White admitted he was “massively disappointed” by their performance and heavy defeat to Glasgow Warriors at the weekend, he said it was not the end of the world, pointing out that at this time last year, the eventual runners-up in the United Rugby Championship had only won one match.

The 35-21 loss was the Bulls’ first in four matches this season, and undoubtedly their most flat, lacklustre performance for a long time.

“Sometimes you just have a bad day at the office, it was difficult today, we had to play catch-up against the pace of the 4G pitch and Glasgow’s accuracy and physicality,” White said.

“We are still a very young group of players, but I told them there are no excuses, sometimes we let teams play well against us. I’m massively disappointed.

“We looked like young boys at times, while they had men, and we missed some tackles. The players know that I am disappointed and they are too. And I can’t fast-forward age or experience.

“But it’s a long tour and season, and one poor game does not mean we can’t still win the competition. This time last year we only had one win and we still made the final. We won’t lie down and die,” White said.

The last time the Bulls came across referee Andrew Brace was in the URC final in June, and White moaned about his performance after their loss to the Stormers. Against Glasgow, it was noticeable how many times the Bulls were penalised at the attacking breakdown inside the Warriors’ 22.

“It’s worrying that Glasgow didn’t concede anything inside our 22, but every time we were in their 22, something would go wrong. There was also Elrigh Louw’s yellow card.

“I can’t understand how every time we were five metres from their line we would make a mistake, but they got everything right in the same position in our half.

“We’ve been very accurate in the 22 with our forwards before, and the players really have no idea what went wrong tonight. And there was cleaning past the ball when you’re not allowed to touch the scrumhalf.

“But those are not the reasons we lost – we played poorly, we weren’t up for it and we looked lethargic – blame that, not two or three calls. It’s the nature of the competition away from home,” White said.

It was also quite a voyage for the Bulls to get to Glasgow in the northern United Kingdom. They had to travel for 24 hours, flying to Doha and then Edinburgh, before catching a bus to Glasgow. But White said that did not excuse their display.

“The travel is not an excuse. The Lions went for 27 hours and they have won all three of their games,” White stated.

Sharks coach Sean Everitt was pleased with the attacking play of his team against Leinster, but obviously not happy with the defensive lapses that saw them go down 54-34 to the United Rugby Championship log-leaders at the weekend.

In a dazzling game of rugby, the Sharks contributed five tries and more than held their own until the final quarter. That’s when their defence out wide was exposed and Leinster turned a narrow 28-27 lead on the hour mark into a convincing, impressive victory.

”I was pleased with the five really good tries we scored, not many teams score 34 points against Leinster, let alone five tries and especially not here,” Everitt said after the match.

“So there were aspects of our game that improved from the last two weeks and our goal on this tour was to get 10 log points and we achieved that.

“But I’m not happy that we conceded fifty points. There were unfortunate individual errors that cost us dearly against a class outfit. Jonny Sexton was world-class in the second half and put us under huge pressure.

“But the boys tried really hard, the effort was there and the energy to fight to the end was displayed. We will continue to grow with this young group of players,” Everitt said.

Leinster coach Leo Cullen said the Sharks’ physicality was a fresh challenge for his team, knocking his players back sometimes, although he suggested some of their efforts were over-robust and he would be re-examining the footage, possibly with a view to making a citing.

“That game had a bit of everything, we had three players go off for Head Impact Assessments. The Sharks are big, physical men and it was a totally different ball-game for us,” Cullen said.

“The Sharks had nothing to lose, they flew into everything. There were a lot of things that happened in the game and I will need to look at some incidents again.

“They were circling, they went after our defence and we were done a bit on the edge, or when we over-chased we got done on the inside. They certainly tested us out,” Cullen said.

Having begun their campaign on tour, the Sharks now have two matches at home, against Glasgow Warriors and Ulster, before ending October by travelling to Pretoria to take on the Bulls.

Sluggish and on the back foot from the outset, the Bulls were torn to shreds by the Glasgow Warriors on the 4G pitch at Scotstoun, being hammered 35-21 in their United Rugby Championship match on Saturday night.

On a rainy night in Glasgow, the Warriors were on fire from the start, backing their expansive intentions and showing they had the skills to pull it off. But a Bulls side that relies so much on their physicality was strangely passive and they were outworked and outmuscled at the rucks and on the gainline. The fact that they were passive on defence was probably the biggest indictment of their effort.

Glasgow scored two tries in the first 11 minutes to give themselves a healthy lead, especially with the rain, but the Bulls did fight back with a Kurt-Lee Arendse try after Cornal Hendrikse capitalised on a loose ball thanks to pressure by Elrigh Louw.

But the second quarter saw both lock Scott Cummings and scrumhalf George Horne take advantage of lacklustre defending and Glasgow were 28-7 up at halftime.

When the Warriors scored again eight minutes into the second half, wing Sebastian Cancelliere combining slickly with fullback Josh McKay, the Bulls were 35-7 down and on a hiding to nothing.

The second half did not have the spark of the first, but the Bulls were totally lacking the attacking accuracy to claw their way back into the match. The attacking breakdown was the biggest issue for them and penalties there, as well as a few handling errors, accounted for the ball being turned over nine times in promising positions inside the Glasgow 22.

The fire that was so lacking in the Bulls side finally made an appearance when eighthman Louw tussled with Horne on the ground, both of the players being sent to the sin bin for their troubles.

The Bulls did have a chance of earning a couple of points on the log after Bismarck du Plessis burrowed over for their second try on the hour mark. But the Janko Swanepoel try in the final minute was the only addition to their score.

The territory that set up both second-half tries came from scrum penalties, probably the only area of the game where the Bulls were better than the opposition.

Scorers

Glasgow Warriors – Tries: Matt Fagerson, Sebastian Cancelliere, Scott Cummings, George Horne, Josh McKay. Conversions: Horne (5).

Bulls – Tries: Kurt-Lee Arendse, Bismarck du Plessis, Janko Swanepoel. Conversions: Chris Smith (2), Morne Steyn.

The Sharks scored five tries and contributed superbly to a dazzling game of rugby, but sadly their defence was found wanting and was nowhere near the quality of their attacking play, as Leinster thumped them 54-34 in their United Rugby Championship match in Dublin on Saturday evening.

A brilliant first half saw Leinster and the Sharks trade tries as the home side went into the break just 21-20 up. They were still just one point ahead as the hour mark loomed, a magnificent solo try by wing Thaakir Abrahams lifting the visitors back to 27-28.

But the Sharks unfortunately lost the plot in the final quarter as Leinster scored five tries to one in those 20 minutes. A game that had produced so much brilliant rugby sadly ended on a sour note as Sharks centre Rohan Janse van Rensburg was correctly red-carded for a wild tackle that saw his swinging arm hit opposite number Robbie Henshaw in the chin, sparking off a melee.

While the Sharks showed fantastic skill and imagination in attack, cutting Leinster open off lineout drives and scrums, their defence was consistently found wanting out wide, where Leinster found space through brilliant kicks or great handling.

Leinster flyhalf Jonny Sexton, or Sir Jonny as he is known in Dublin, pulled the strings superbly, his kicking being brilliant. He kicked seven out of eight conversions, which kept the hosts ahead on the leaderboard in the early stages, and his crosskicks were a real thorn in the Sharks’ flesh, with centres Henshaw and Charlie Ngatai also setting up tries from precise kick-passes.

The Sharks’ defence was again caught too narrow too often, and coach Sean Everitt will need to sort that out.

But he will be delighted with their wonderful attacking play, highlighted by the brace of tries scored by Abrahams. His second try, in the 55^th minute, was outrageous. He did well to claim a tricky, pressure high-ball, and then scampered away from a crowd of defenders, kicked ahead and then beat replacement wing Garry Ringrose to the touchdown.

Fullback Aphelele Fassi scored two tries as well, but had a mixed evening as he was a revolving door in defence at times.

Flank Dylan Richardson bossed the breakdowns, and the Sharks seemed to have the edge at scrum time, although there were precious few of those, which speaks to the quality of the game and how few handling errors there were.

Leinster’s forwards also carried superbly, and it was the attention they demanded from the Sharks defence which also contributed to the space out wide.

Scorers

Leinster: Tries – Jason Jenkins, Garry Ringrose (2), Andrew Porter, Robbie Henshaw, Rob Russell, Jonny Sexton, John McKee. Conversions – Sexton (7).

Sharks: Tries – Aphelele Fassi (2), Werner Kok, Thaakir Abrahams (2). Conversions – Boeta Chamberlain (2), Nevaldo Fleurs. Penalty – Chamberlain.