It wasn’t surprising but the emphatic tone in Vodacom Bulls coach Jake White’s answer after his side qualified for the Rainbow Cup final underlined how important it is for South African rugby that the Bulls perform this week when they face Benetton Treviso in Italy.
“We’re going there to win,” White exclaimed.
Most rugby fans will see it as the understatement of the century when a coach says this, but the importance of the fixture and excitement among the players cannot be underestimated.
After almost a year of knocking the daylights out of the other South African franchises, and dominating South African rugby, this is something different. This is a new challenge.
So while the Bulls may not come out and say it so emphatically, the challenge of facing overseas opposition for the first time in almost a year cannot be underestimated.
While the local derbies have given us a mixture of excitement and at times concern over the standard of play, it is always difficult to compare without facing a different style.
And while some parts of Pro14 aren’t keen for the entry of South African teams, the Bulls know they need to give a good performance to underline why the move north is necessary.
Excitement is the watchword in the team and while there are challenges to overcome, White was more than excited about the prospect of taking his team abroad.
“I think it is an exciting time for everybody. The whole of South Africa is keen to see a different game compared to the local derbies we’ve played. Through circumstance we’ve had to play each other many many times, whether its Preparation series, Rainbow Cup, Currie Cup or Super Rugby Unlocked,” he explained.
“I don’t think it is a reward, it is great for a South African team. I saw Sean Everitt downstairs and he said go win it for South Africa.
“I think the reality is that everybody in South Africa wants to see something different. There is a chance for us to perform. We want to play in the north and there has been a lot of hard work behind the scenes by SA Rugby. To be the first team to play in the north and measure ourselves against the competition there.
“It’s exciting for us, don’t know if it is a reward, but it is an exciting opportunity. I’m looking forward to taking this team and see how good we are against a team that is unbeaten. They are the only team that is unbeaten in the Rainbow Cup. It’s a great feature for us.”
And while the Bulls were less than perfect in Durban and their discipline will be a key feature for White and his coaching team to work on, it is always easier doing that from a position of strength than from one of weakness.
“When you are a coach you get so nitpicky about small things. We could have kicked the ball out a few times, Keegan Johannes got the ball, great scrum, and then kicks the ball down (Aphelele) Fassi’s throat. That just has to go into the cheap seats, game over. Naivety in terms of what happened there,” White explained.
“Morne (Steyn) kicking the ball for all his experience and not finding touch. All of a sudden little things make a difference. But you only learn and the more I can coach those scenarios, the more we can go through a video session and understanding the ramifications of how you can close a game off.
“Even though we had won, even though we had four tries and are going overseas, obviously I am still critical of the fact that that will not always be the case. That it will be a 27-26 case, need to find touch and don’t be fancy-type of scenario.
“If we don’t address that and if we don’t understand that. Sometimes to do that after a win and when you are on a high is much easier. Then it is called coaching. If you do it when you lose, it is called uitkak. There is a helluva difference. I enjoy the fact you can do it when you win.”
White did say it was a strange permutation in Durban and that may have affected the way the team played. At least now with a final the objective is clear. Points are at a premium and building an innings will be key in the way the Bulls play.
“This was one of the strangest games we’ve ever played from a permutation point of view. They need to score four tries and we need to score four tries or lose by less than eight,” White added.
“I don’t want to be paranoid but what you don’t want to do is say in the game they have three tries, and are leading and you try and play a bit of rugby and they intercept, score under the poles, and all of a sudden you could have not only lost, but given them a bonus point and you’ve stopped getting yourself one point. It was a strange game.
“Next week is different, next week is a final. Next week three becomes six, becomes nine. It’s not like you have to chase everything. This game was extraordinary in that the Sharks had to chase four tries - if they won the game with three tries it wouldn’t mean anything.
“The message the whole time is we’re going for the win, the message the whole time whenever we play is that we have to play the way the Bulls play. What you’ve seen is that we work hard and if it takes the 79th minute for us to get our try then we have to believe it will come. We want to outwork opposition.
“We got the job done, we got four tries again and in six games we’ve scored four tries, three or four times. That is a spinoff from the Preparation Series where the intensity and the ball in play, all those things that were pushed by the national team, were put in place.”
Now the Bulls need to go out and do the business. Not only for themselves this time, but for the whole country.