Jake did not care to discuss the nitty-gritty but rather made digs at the referee 0
Bleak Bulls coach Jake White did not care much to discuss the nitty-gritty of the match but rather made thinly-veiled digs at referee Andrew Brace following his side’s 18-13 loss to the Stormers in the United Rugby Championship final in Cape Town.
While it was a game in which the bounce of the ball probably did not go the Bulls way, they were also penalised nine times compared to the five of the Stormers. But the home team also dominated in terms of territory (54%) and possession (55%) and, in terms of the scoreboard, the ultimate difference was that they scored two tries to one.
The Bulls also paid for not making more of their early dominance, only scoring seven points in the first half.
“We should have been up more at halftime but there were certain things that we just couldn’t control,” White said. “The referee can only blow what he sees and I thought the referee was outstanding, he saw what he saw.
“There were a lot of things we couldn’t control and you’re never going to be able to. It hurts, it really hurts, those little things. You can’t argue with the referee.
“Right before halftime, they were in our half once and they got a penalty for offsides. We were in their half six times and we did not get any penalties.
“I thought Deon Fourie and Steven Kitshoff were outstanding at the breakdown, but I don’t want to be seen as a whinger but a couple of times they went for the ball, missed, go back again and get rewarded. You can’t control that,” White fumed.
To make the 58-year-old’s mood even worse, the Bulls have also been knocked out of his beloved Currie Cup at the semi-final stage, losing 30-19 to Griquas.
“There are no positives, we lost twice in one weekend, which is the most we’ve suffered in a long time,” White said. “Other teams treated the Currie Cup as a development project, we’re going to have to do the same.
“The Stormers just kept building pressure and the game was never going to go away from them. The longer that pressure went on, the more things we couldn’t control and the game got away from us.
“We were never going to win this game,” White said.