The hope of still being “alive” in European club competitions and the aura of perhaps winning a trophy was enough to convince Vodacom Bulls coach Jake White to send in a strong side to claim the final remaining place in the pool rounds after a poor start to the Investec Champions Cup.
The Bulls’ 48-7 win over Stade Francais on Saturday meant they closed the points difference gap and leap-frogged the French side to take the one spot in the EPCR Challenge Cup that goes to the side that finishes fifth in the pool.
“We wanted to give ourselves a chance of winning another trophy and it is not ideal, but it still keeps us alive. And as we all know, if the Bulls are alive, anything can happen,” White smiled.
But that comes with a caveat of more travel as South African sides still don’t have the right to host any playoff games in the EPCR competitions.
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The Bulls will have to travel for a tough round of 16 encounter with Bayonne, and then if they win face either the Lions or Edinburgh, who are in the same half of the draw as them. Both of them come with risks, but if it is the Lions, the Bulls will face them in South Africa, and will have to travel twice to Europe in as many weeks as they will have to fly back from France, play a quarterfinal, and then fly back for two vital Vodacom United Rugby Championship games.
The two weeks of European action are followed by games against the two champions of the last two years - Munster and Glasgow Warriors. If the Bulls win at Bayonne, they could alternatively then face Edinburgh in Scotland, meaning the trip would become a four-week tour.
That isn’t something that is exciting White, who was speaking before he knew who his opposition would be in the Challenge Cup. But he did note the Bulls' success in winning three away games early in the URC in what has been a bit of a nightmare draw for the Pretoria side.
“But now it comes at a cost, we now have to play away. And that comes with a helluva difficulty. Those two games are two weeks before we play Munster and Glasgow. That means it is a four week tour. If we win that one and the next one we are there for four weeks. So much for playing in Europe and not spending as much time away from home,” said White.
“We have had a very difficult draw. We spent three weeks on tour before the Springboks toured in November and afterwards we had two weeks on tour. Now it won’t be like that every year, but those are the uncontrollables we had.
“But we managed that quite well, and we managed to beat Connacht away. We managed to win two out of our three games without our Springboks because they were on leave. So there were a lot of positives we got out of touring and creating depth.
“It isn’t easy when you spend four weeks away from home.”
LEARNINGS THAT HAPPEN EACH WEEK
White was pleased, however, with the way his side managed the task of overturning the points deficit and keeping Stade Francais from scoring four tries. In the end the French side, without many of their stars, only scored one.
White did also admit that it may have suited the side’s URC ambitions if they had missed out any further games in the Challenge Cup altogether.
“It probably would have. We need to win at Loftus though, and I just enjoyed the way we managed the game having to score 22 more points than them. I’ve been coaching for a long time and you sometimes take it for granted that everyone in your team understands how you are going to win by 22 points.
“There are a lot of learnings that happen every week. One example of this was Ruan Nortje, who took three points when we were 26-7 up. What he had worked out in his head was that he knew we had the bonus point and we need to keep the points ticking over.
“Other captains may have kicked to the corner and said ‘ let’s see if we can get another try’ - and it doesn’t mean one is right and one is wrong, but I enjoyed his thinking. And that there was a thought process is something I enjoyed.”
The Bulls will move on to face the Lions in the first of a series of derbies starting this weekend in Johannesburg.
Joburg let’s make it count.
— Lions (@LionsRugbyCo) January 20, 2025
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