Ken Borland

Jake White was clearly having a bit of a laugh when he said his Bulls team might go to Newlands on Saturday and not kick at all in their Currie Cup opener against great rivals Western Province at Newlands, but the canny World Cup winning coach has already had the last laugh with the way he has turned things around at Loftus Versfeld.

White has always given a good press conference because he is engaging, loves a chat and he is not averse to playing a few mind games, especially before the big matches. In domestic terms, it seldom gets any bigger than the Bulls against the Stormers/Western Province, the famous north versus south derby.

Probably the most impressive feature though of White’s coaching at Loftus Versfeld has been the way the Bulls have shown the ability to play different kinds of rugby. The general expectation when he arrived in Pretoria was that the Bulls would play a conservative brand of rugby, going back to their old strengths of almost 10-man rugby: a powerful pack dominating the tight exchanges and then the halfbacks kicking the leather off the ball and the stuffing out of the opposition.

And while White has recently been giving hints that they will need to perfect the conservative approach once they start playing in the Pro16 competition in the miserable European winter, the Bulls backs have been playing with a new-found verve and sparkle. Sevens Springboks seem to be having a much bigger impact in XVs these days, but White has gone further than most in choosing three of them in his backline – Kurt-Lee Arendse, Stedman Gans and Cornal Hendricks.

White has never been a great publisher of his strategic thinking in the build-up to his campaigns, but there was barely a hint of Hendricks’ move to inside centre before it happened in the official opening friendly of the season, the Bulls’ game against the Sharks on SuperFan Saturday.

While many viewed the decision with trepidation – especially those used to the normal big bruisers who have played inside centre for the Bulls – White’s eye for talent and shrewd rugby brain has once again been proven because Hendricks has been a revelation in the No.12 jersey. He has been the key to the exciting backline play they have produced, while he has also shown no signs of vulnerability defensively.

The thing about White is that he is a true student of the game and his attention to detail is second to none; from prop to fullback, the coach will be very precise in what he wants from his players.

It has been remarkable how the Bulls have gone from the lower reaches of the 2020 Super Rugby log, winning just one of their six matches before Covid-19 struck, to the champion team in South Africa, but that’s what happens when hard work is backed up by tactical excellence and a coach who has the experience and nous to get the little things, that make such a big difference, right.

While White’s lateral thinking has taken him to the perimeters of rugby wisdom at times, he also puts great store in the importance of the basics. Little wonder then that in his recruitment and his selection thus far he has concentrated on building the most physically intimidating, formidable pack in South Africa. Their dominance of the gain-line has been key to everything else they have tried to do on the field.

There are many who wrote White, who will turn 57 in two weeks time,  off as one of the antiques of world coaching, but the value of having an experienced, well-travelled coach – he has also worked in Australia, France and Japan – has become very apparent at Loftus Versfeld.

A great forward-planner, White has also worked hard in his position of director of rugby to put together structures for the entire Bulls system. The art of coaching is not about gimmicks or fancy moves, but mastering the basics.

White seems to be doing that at Loftus Versfeld, and a powerful Bulls team is good news for South African rugby as a whole.

The Bulls fired on all cylinders for probably just the first 25 minutes, but it was enough for them to beat the Pumas 21-5 and clinch some more, long-awaited silverware for their Loftus Versfeld trophy cabinet as they won the Super Rugby Unlocked competition by four points over the Stormers and Sharks.

In what is probably the last ever Super Rugby tournament, it was perhaps fitting that the Bulls, as the only South African winners of the competition, signed off as the winners of this strictly local event. But it is also the first senior trophy to find a home at Loftus Versfeld since their 2010 Super Rugby triumph, so there will be great relief in Pretoria and a sense of justification that the appointment of Jake White as director of rugby has indeed borne immediate fruit.

The Bulls raced into a 21-0 lead inside those first 25 minutes, playing clinical rugby. Their superb pack was once again utterly dominant, they squeezed the Pumas in all the set-pieces, their driving maul was well-used and their ball-in-hand play was direct and incisive. And the Bulls’ breakdown work was hugely impressive, with flank Marco van Staden absolutely rampant and eighthman Duane Vermelen not far behind.

Wing Kurt-Lee Arendse opened the scoring in the 11^th minute from close range after one of numerous penalties had been kicked to touch five metres out; six minutes later flyhalf Chris Smith rounded off a period of very direct running by the Bulls as he forced his way through three tackles to score; and scrum Ivan van Zyl then sniped through a gap to score after a big scrum by the Bulls had earned a penalty against the Pumas on their own ball.

The marvellous rugby of the first half gave way to a scrappier, but more intensely competitive second half as the Pumas showed pleasing improvement. They stopped conceding a flood of penalties, they were better in the set-pieces, made fewer mistakes and, were it not for some lapses in decision-making at crucial times, they could have pushed hard for the win given how they turned around the territory and possession stats.

They showed their intent from the start of the second half, hooker HP van Schoor muscling over for a try from a lineout drive.

Given how brave the Pumas have been in fronting up for this game after 11 of their squad have been in quarantine for the last week, it was pleasing that they ended this phase of the season with their heads held high.

Also coming out of the math with great credit was referee Aimee Barrett-Theron, who became the first woman to referee at senior professional level in South Africa, and officiated with confidence, certainly being the mistress in charge out on the field.

Scorers

Bulls: Tries – Kurt-Lee Arendse, Chris Smith, Ivan van Zyl. Conversions – Smith (3).

Pumas: Try – HP van Schoor.

Stormers coach John Dobson admitted that the Bulls had played them off the park in their Super Rugby Unlocked match at Loftus Versfeld at the weekend, with play being called off at the 63-minute mark with the Bulls enjoying  commanding 39-6 lead.

Dobson pointed to the fact that the Stormers were about to enjoy their first put-in at a scrum when the match was ended due to lightning as a measure of how error-free the Bulls were, and their coach Jake White admitted that his team were certainly where they wanted to be at this stage of the season, and probably playing better than he expected.

“As a coach, one can always be critical of little things and we will learn from those and get better. But I’m looking forward to where we will be in two months’ time if this is the sort of improvement the guys are showing now. We are where we want to be, considering that we haven’t been together for long, only four or five weeks. So the future just looks good.

“But we have won nothing yet and we will prepare the same every week, and make sure we still keep our detail sharp. We have a good group of players and I’m looking forward to seeing how they grow. We managed to hold on to the ball and the first 40 minutes are the best rugby the Bulls have played in a long time. What I enjoy the most was the continuity we played with,” White said after the match.

The game was touted as being a massive forward battle, but predictions of an intense, tight match were made foolish by the Bulls forwards putting in an exceptional display.

“The forwards were outstanding, the scrum and the maul, but I was especially pleased with their ability to adapt and the interplay between backs an forwards was very pleasing. We knew the Stormers would use their forward pack to get out of trouble and our plan was to nullify them and get them to play out of their own half. The game hasn’t changed and it’s still your pack of forwards that wins you the game.

“Our pack was outstanding, the scrums were very good and the way they carried the ball, their offloading, and the way they played between the backs was great. They gave the platform for the backs to play. And then watching Morne Steyn and Ivan van Zyl and the impact they made was great, and I’m really enjoying the combination at centre between Stedman Gans and Cornal Hendricks,” White said.

The Bulls produced sublime rugby at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday night as they pummelled the Stormers 39-6 in their Super Rugby Unlocked match, the visitors being spared further humiliation by divine intervention as lightning forced the match to be abandoned after 64 minutes.

The decison to stop play was a surprise, given that the Bulls and Sharks played through a far more potent storm last weekend.

While a disappointingly flat Stormers side almost gave the impression that they had come to Pretoria for a holiday, the Bulls were outstanding and deserve credit for hammering their opponents into submission. The Bulls were accurate with their kicking game, their rolling maul was magnificent, the scrum put the much-vaunted all-Springbok opposition front row under pressure, and the razor-sharp backs were able to punch holes in the Stormers line with regularity.

And once the Bulls began dominating the breakdown, the Stormers were hapless, with a few forays into the home team’s 22 in the second half not bearing fruit, with Duane Vermeulen, in particular, enjoying a field day when it came to stealing ball.

Another veteran who enjoyed a sensational match was Bulls flyhalf Morne Steyn, who rolled back the years to the halcyon days of the late 2000s. He took full advantage of the platform laid for him by the brilliant pack and produced a masterclass of superb tactical kicking and slick distribution, including an outrageous behind-the-back pass that ensured the Bulls took advantage of an overlap they were about to waste for centre Stedman Gans’s first try.

He picked out with unerring accuracy destinations both far, with his long-range kicking ensuring the Bulls dominated territory, and close as his deft little chips over the defence created havoc. Steyn sealed a 32-6 halftime lead as he regathered his beautiful little chip off the left foot over the defence and sent impressive lock Ruan Nortje over with a perfectly-timed pass through a screen of defenders.

Having absorbed some pressure early in the second half, Steyn then produced a lovely little chip into space for Gans to rush on to, the livewire Sevens star bursting through fullback Warrick Gelant’s tackle to score his second try.

Scorers

Bulls: Tries – Johan Grobbelaar, Stedman Gans (2), Ivan van Zyl, Ruan Nortje. Conversions – Morne Steyn (4). Penalties –Steyn (2).

Stormers: Penalties – Damian Willemse (2).