Cape Town - It’s not often that you can find fault with a team that were able to secure a bonus-point victory, but that was exactly the feeling after the Bulls beat Glasgow Warriors 29-17 in their United Rugby Championship encounter at Loftus Versfeld on Friday night.
And to his credit, coach Jake White agreed that his team “didn’t play well” despite scoring four tries through Zak Burger, Madosh Tambwe, Walt Steenkamp and Cyle Brink, which catapulted the Pretoria side from eighth to second position on the log with 53 points.
That was the situation for less than two hours, though, as Munster’s 42-21 win over Cardiff later on Friday night put them on 56 points, five behind leaders Leinster – but all of that can change over the course of Saturday, when the rest of the sides play.
The Bulls battled to get going against Glasgow, with the Scottish outfit’s time-wasting tactics and the incessant whistle of 27-year-old Georgian referee Nika Amashukeli also contributing to the stop-start nature of the match.
But more importantly for White, they have all but secured a playoff spot, and are now hunting Champions Cup qualification in their last league match against the Ospreys in Wales on May 20.
“I just said to the players now, that’s a very good team. They have been consistent, and I think they have always been in the top of the log since it started. They are off to play Lyon next week in the quarter-finals of the Challenge Cup, so this is a good team,” the former Springbok coach said afterwards.
“I’m obviously very happy that we got a bonus point, and we showed a lot of character from where we were a couple of weeks ago – second-bottom of the log – and all of a sudden, we are second.
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“I know there are (other) games to be played (this weekend), but still… When we played all the other tournaments, we’ve generally been one or two on the log. So, it’s been – not easy – but easier because we could control our own outcome.
“Now, we’ve had to play catch-up rugby and had to get bonus points, and I think we got a lot of bonus points at home now – Ulster, Scarlets, Dragons and tonight as well.”
While the Bulls did well to rediscover their fire for a brief period in the second half, which led to the third and fourth tries, White was irritated by the fact that Glasgow were able to finish with a flourish, scoring through fullback Ollie Smith, who nearly grabbed a second touchdown in the closing stages.
“We didn’t play well… and when I say that, it doesn’t sound right. We played really well at times, and we probably showed a little bit of naivety in game management,” the Bulls director of rugby said.
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“Last week we were 31-21 up, and it’s almost like we wanted to start to show the crowd that we can play, and we let the team (Benetton) back in again.
“And tonight we did the same. We wrestled them and wrestled them and wrestled them, and when I thought we had done enough – and I think the players did as well – all of a sudden, we start going into a different style. And we’ve got to be careful, because when we play good sides like this, it can come back to bite you.”
Points-Scorers
Bulls 29 – Tries: Zak Burger, Madosh Tambwe, Walt Steenkamp, Cyle Brink. Conversions: Morné Steyn (3). Penalties: Steyn (1).
Glasgow 17 – Tries: Penalty Try, Ollie Smith (1). Conversion: Ross Thompson (1). Penalty: Duncan Weir (1).
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