Ken Borland

Bulls coach Jake White praised his team for their determination to not just lie down and die after Morne Steyn’s red card against the Sharks at Loftus Versfeld, even though he admitted their lack of finishing and ultimate defeat leaves them in a very difficult position in the United Rugby Championship.

The Bulls had to play for 70 minutes without their talismanic flyhalf after he was permanently sent off for a late, high tackle that struck the neck of Lukhanyo Am. But a tremendous effort and some superb rugby saw them come back from 26-12 down, eventually losing 22-29 with several scoring chances left on the table.

“I’m really proud of the way the team fought back,” White said, “because some teams just lay down and die after a red card. Your flyhalf runs everything, and Morne is the best kicker in the competition and we missed three conversions. Kick those and we would have won.

“It’s never nice to lose, we don’t feel good, but there’s a lot to be positive about. You lose your flyhalf for 70 minutes and still score four tries against probably the best team on paper in South Africa.

“It was not the result we wanted, but you can’t question the players’ commitment. We just needed to be more clinical in their 22, we managed to pin them there for long periods of time.

“We had enough opportunities in the 22, but things went wrong with our maul and some of our ball-carries. But I’m very confident with where we are going with this team,” White said.

The former Springbok coach expressed his surprise that the Bulls did not see more reward from referee AJ Jacobs either for their rolling maul or their concerted pressure on the Sharks’ tryline.

“We ran 40 metres with our maul and got no reward, which I can’t understand,” White said. “We also had a half-a-dozen penalties on their tryline.

“Our forward pack did not take a step backwards and we showed that we can dominate against a team that is like the Springboks side.

“I thought Robert Hunt and Jacques van Rooyen did well today against the incumbent Springbok front row and we are much better off in terms of scrummaging than we were seven weeks ago.

“But this loss puts us in a very difficult position. Our backs are against the wall for the first time for this group. But good teams find a way of making the playoffs and our challenge now is to find the low road,” White said.

Springbok captain Siya Kolisi has no reason to massage the egos of the Argentina forwards so when he said on Friday that their pack was similar to the one he leads it was perhaps the ultimate compliment. And an indicator of how stiff a challenge the South African team face in their opening Rugby Championship match at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Saturday.

Argentina coach Mario Ledesma has said this week that taking on the Springbok pack is the toughest challenge his forwards will face, and Kolisi returned the compliment by saying the Pumas pack was similar. Pablo Matera and Facunda Isa are world-class loose forwards, locks Guido Petti and Marcos Kremer can mix it with the best and Julian Montoya and Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro provide plenty of fire in the front row.

“It’s a big challenge for us too against the Argentina forwards, they are a very strong pack who pride themselves on mauling and scrumming, and at the breakdown they all get involved. They are similar to us and that’s what makes it so difficult. So there is definitely mutual respect between the two packs. They are a completely different challenge to the Lions.

“So we have done no less preparation for them. We have to make sure we can get our own game going, if we get it right then it doesn’t matter who we are playing against. Obviously Argentina will want to prove a point. We know the challenge they’ll pose – a strong pack with their ball-carries and guys really getting into the breakdown,” Kolisi said on Friday.

Several new faces have been brought in to refresh the team after their huge exertions in the British and Irish Lions series and Kolisi said they have an important role to play in keeping the Springboks in the number one spot in the world rankings in what will be an incredibly tough Rugby Championship.

“The guys getting an opportunity to play and Joseph Dweba playing his first Test are very hungry and they really want to play, so they are going to bring energy. We want Joseph, who I know is very excited, Ox Nche and Wilco Louw to take charge in the scrum battle. And myself and Kwagga Smith have played together quite a bit and we work well together.

“The goal after winning the World Cup was to maintain our number one ranking and consistently stay there. We don’t want to be once-off winners. We want to win more games and trophies, that’s how we will keep being number one. The coaches give us simple messages to play simple rugby, they want us to focus on the stuff that does not require talent and I love it,’ Kolisi said.