Coach Jake White says the Vodacom Bulls’ inability to win the ball in the air proved costly in their 19-16 defeat to the Stormers at Loftus on Saturday.
Both teams managed to score a converted try in horrendous conditions, with four penalties from flyhalf Jurie Matthee giving the Stormers’ an eighth win against their arch-rivals in 10 Vodacom URC matches.
“Our lineout was a bit shoddy in the first half and we never won an aerial contest in the whole game,” said White when asked what went wrong for his side. “Every time there was an up and under, we were less efficient than the Stormers. They kicked really well and put us under pressure.
“The try they scored, they isolated Sebastian [de Klerk], we knocked it on, it hit [Stormers scrumhalf] Paul de Wet’s foot on the fly and [centre] Wandisile Simelane used his football skills to score.
“When the ball did bounce into our hands after we had kicked it, we knocked it on. The conditions didn’t make it easy, but we also made it hard for ourselves.”
White also pondered whether the Bulls should have kicked a late penalty to touch, instead of at goal to get a draw.
“One of the permutations [if the game had not been played] was two points each, but we wanted to try to win the game and the SA Shield. In hindsight, it probably would have suited us [if the game hadn’t taken place] because we wouldn’t have had three injuries.
Springbok wing Canan Moodie didn’t return after leaving the field in the fifth minute for an HIA, and the Bulls also lost Bok flank Marco van Staden (ankle) just before half time and lock Cobus Wiese (hamstring) early in the second half.
“Canan is probably the best for us under the high ball,” White lamented. “Losing Marco and Cobus also came with a break in rhythm and cohesion
“When the game was delayed, I was thinking that we should we say that one of our backs got injured in the warm-up and go with a 6-2 bench, but as it so happened, Canan went off after four minutes so we needed a 5-3 bench. I’m not for one minute saying I was going to cheat, just that it was going through my mind.
“I’m always amazed that you can’t do that [make a late change] in rugby, when you can in every other sport,” White added. “Why can’t a coach say in the warm-up that things have changed so much [because of the weather] let’s go 6-2 on the bench or start with another prop.
“I would think [it’s not allowed] because the home team would have their whole squad [to choose from] while the away team only has X amount of guys.”
While disappointed with the defeat, White said it was not “doom and gloom” for the Bulls.
“We’re still third on the log, and we got points in the bag when playing away from home. We’ve just got to regroup now. We’ve got some really tough games coming up.
“We need to get to the quarter-finals and have our best team on the field and play as well as we can and hopefully get to the final.
“We’re in a much better place than the other [South African] teams at this stage, so I’m not going to sit here and say to you, ‘What happens now?’, you know. What happens now is we have two weeks off and then we’ve got a couple more home games [against Leinster and Zebre in the URC] before we head off on our EPCR [Challenge Cup] tour.”
