Cape Town – The Bulls may have to play an away playoff in the Champions Cup, but that may not be such a bad thing, considering their upcoming schedule.
The Pretoria side managed to see off Bordeaux 46-40 at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Saturday, which was important to keep them in the mix for a home tie in the last-16.
But the bigger goal for Jake White’s team on Saturday was to end on top of Pool 1, which was still attainable by halftime, when the Bulls were 26-14 ahead.
They had to have a winning margin of 36 points and deny Bordeaux a bonus point entirely in order to go to the top of the pool log, which would have guaranteed them second place.
The final pool match took place late last night in north London, where Saracens needed just a point and a losing margin of less than 20 against Lyon to reach the last-16.
Lyon required only a victory to go to the top of Pool 1, but now the Bulls will hope that Saracens win outright at the Stone X Stadium on Saturday night to keep Lyon in third spot.
Or would they? White suggested after the match on Saturday that due to the Bulls’ United Rugby Championship schedule around the last-16 weekend on April 5-7, with the quarter-finals set for the following weekend, it won’t be a bad outcome for them to play away from home.
“I’d love to have a home game at Loftus, but we actually play Dragons (in Newport on March 23) and then Leinster (in Dublin on March 29). If it goes according to plan and we get a home game, we’ve got to come back here after being two weeks overseas,” the Bulls boss said.
“If we win that game, we go back overseas to play in the quarter-finals as you are (unlikely to get a home quarter-final).
“Then we’ve got to come here and play Munster. Basically, our schedule would be Dragons away, Leinster away, back home for a last-16, away for a quarter-final, and then back here for Munster (in Pretoria on April 20).
“I don’t want to underplay anything, but it’s a helluva tough task for a group of players to fly back and forth, with the age profile of our players.
“But the nice thing is we can still finish second and get a home last-16, which is an improvement from last year as we played Toulouse away. At least there’s growth, development and learnings we will put in place.
“Unfortunately we can’t change the schedule, but who knows...”
Having also wasted a few other try-scoring opportunities, the Bulls missed a real chance of securing the 36-point winning margin and denying Bordeaux a bonus point.
But after a massive effort from the likes of forwards such as captain Marcell Coetzee, hooker Jan-Hendrik Wessels and No 8 Cameron Hanekom, as well as Player-of-the-Match David Kriel and scrumhalf Embrose Papier, the Bulls’ defence let them down in the second half to concede six tries in total.
“I’m trying hard to digest what actually happened there. At halftime, we probably thought we could get a 36 points difference, which meant that we would’ve come first,” White said.
“I thought we probably got seduced a little bit by the style – we probably started thinking like it’s a sevens game. That probably helps them because you could see that they are a good team.
“We did help them, but the margins are so small... We tap and run that one penalty, and we get tackled out into the corner flag.
“Early on in the game, Cameron knocks it on, on the tryline. That’s something we are going to have to be sharper on.
“But I can’t be cross with them. Four of the forwards who played today are 21 and under: JF van Heerden is 19, Cameron 21, Jan-Hendrik 22, Reinhardt Ludwig 21.
“Now if you consider that this is the next step to Test-match rugby, then the only way you are going to learn is to through these tests. One of the things that I will debrief when I sit with them is that we’ve got to be a little more streetwise – and that only comes with time.
“People say, should you have kicked for the corner? Should you have taken the three points? Again, we will have to debrief as a group to see what was the best option.
“But I am obviously very proud of the fact that we still got a win. You don’t score 46 points against Bordeaux... If you go and look at how many times they have conceded 46 points, it’s not often. They have been dominating in France, even away from home.
“So, I’m happy, and there will be lessons that we will learn. But it’s always nice to learn lessons when you’ve won. It would have been a different speech if we had thrown that away.”
The Bulls are next in action against the Lions at Loftus next Saturday.
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