Jake White, director of rugby of the Bulls, said it was a very clever move of Leinster’s head coach Leo Cullen to bring in someone with the inside knowledge of South African rugby like former Springbok World Cup winning coach Jacques Nienaber.
The Bulls were handed a massive 14-47 hiding at the hands of Leinster in a top of the table United Rugby Championship clash at the RDS Arena In Dublin on Friday night.
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On the pitch with Leinster Rugby after our 47-14 win over Vodacom Bulls. 💪 🔥#LEIvBUL #FromTheGroundUp pic.twitter.com/JzOTg7dNQm
— Leinster Rugby (@leinsterrugby) March 29, 2024
“Leinster hasn’t gone from being average to now becoming the real deal overnight. I mean, they have been winning 95% of their games the last couple of years.
“All Jacques will do I’m sure is top up on that 95%. I just think it’s a very astute move by Leo (Cullen),to bring in a chap of the intricacies of what works for the Springboks,” White said.
“They haven’t won tournaments, but to be fair, there aren’t a lot of teams that can brag about beating Leinster over the last couple of seasons.”
White also refereed to the quality of Leinster’s replacements compared to the young guns of the Bulls.
“One of the things that do work is a bench of Malcolm Marx and those sort of guys, RG Snyman and you guys (Leinster) did it to us tonight.
“They were far more experienced than the group I could put on.
“It’s a very different team to the one we played last time, it’s two years older. And that’s why I say we need time.
“There’s one thing Leinster taught me tonight, and again reaffirmed, is the ability for them to go from defence into the attack, it was phenomenal.
“Every time we made a mistake they punished us.
“Every time they transitioned from a bad kick or a turn-over ball, they literally got away with points.”
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A very good Friday!#LEIvBUL #FromTheGroundUp pic.twitter.com/V0dG7XC9X4
— Leinster Rugby (@leinsterrugby) March 29, 2024
White was adamant that his side will bounce back – they just had to learn from the mistakes and build on the experience of playing these big teams.
“We will be better.
“There’s a lot of learnings.
“It’s probably a good lesson for us to play Leinster before we play Lyon in a knock-out game because the next week, if we get through, we play the winner of Northampton and Munster.
“And that’s not going to be easy. And the following week we play Munster again in the URC.
“So literally the next month is not going to be any different to what we experienced today in terms of intensity, in terms of accuracy, in terms of pressure. So those are the lessons that we will have to put into our planning.”