Brave Bulls forced to hang tough, says White

Hanging tough after they were reduced to 13 players before halftime was a turning point for the Bulls when they clinched a nerve-jangling 25-13 win over the Sharks, coach Jake White said.

An elated White also praised an almost sold-out Loftus Versfeld crowd of 47,214 fans who helped propel the Bulls into Saturday’s final against Leinster at Croke Park in Dublin.

Buoyed by Saturday’s epic win, the Bulls are gunning to clinch a first-ever URC title in their third final. 

“I think we won that game in the five minutes before halftime when we had players off the field because of yellow cards,” White said.

“But we managed to hang on and took a 15-3 lead into the halftime break.

“We made it hard for ourselves, but that victory was very nice.

“It was a bit of déjà vu because we played them here earlier this season and got them down to 12 men and we could not open them up.

“It is obviously a huge win for us as a club, and we are into another final. So, that is three finals in four years, and any club would tell you that is a huge achievement.

“In that five minutes before halftime when we had players off the field, it did not look like they were going to score and that is a huge boost to the defence coach and players.

“I told them in the changeroom that is where we won it. Sometimes you think you win a game with a last-minute kick.

“However, it is not that, it is what you do at certain times and we were 12 out of 10 with the way we showed attitude.

“I say it confidently. I sat there thinking they are not going to score here because we were really fronting up there.”

White said the mood in the Bulls’ dressing room at halftime had been upbeat after a courageous defensive effort.

“We weren’t rewarded early on for smashing them in the scrums,” he said.

“The Bulls could have been rewarded a little more.

“Thank goodness they were offside with that intercept try. For me, we could have got a penalty.

“I know the referee will say they didn’t do anything illegal, and the scrum was running backwards.

“I have seen many games where the scrum runs backwards, and it is a penalty.

“I thought we could’ve received more love at scrum time. We didn’t get love at the scrum but we still ended up winning the game.”

Sharks coach John Plumtree said his team’s failure to punish the Bulls when they were down to 13 players before halftime had been costly.

“We had plenty of opportunities to score before half time,” he said.

“We put the Bulls under pressure and they got yellow cards, but we weren’t quite good enough to finish them off.

“We should have been closer to 15-15 at half time, but didn’t cash in close to the line.

“We got held up over the goal line just before halftime, which was an absolute disaster.

“But I was still pretty confident at half time.

We were starting to get our game going and had the territory we needed. 

“The Sharks were a bit off our game on attack.

 “Sometimes we played too deep when we had momentum and sometimes too flat when we didn’t.”

In Saturday’s other semifinal, Leinster beat defending champions Glasgow 37-19 at the Aviva Stadium.

Scorers:

Bulls 25: Tries: Sebastian de Klerk, Canan Moodie, David Kriel. Conversions: Johan Goosen, Keagan Johannes. Penalty goals: Goosen, Johannes.

Sharks 13: Tries: Makazole Mapimpi, Ethan Hooker. Penalty goal: Jordan Hendrikse.

The Herald