Despite the obvious disappointment at not winning the Vodacom United Rugby Championship Grand Final in front of a capacity Loftus Versfeld crowd, once the dust settles the Vodacom Bulls will ultimately look back on the 2023/4 season as an unqualified success.
A special mention to the @BlueBullsRugby - Incredible finalists 🙌
— BKT United Rugby Championship (URC) (@URCOfficial) June 22, 2024
Still a season to be immensely proud of đź‘Ź #BKTURC | #URC | #BULvGLA pic.twitter.com/zwXnLICqIt
It may feel strange to say that now, but for a team that was consistently punching above its own weight, making the URC final for the second time in three years should be seen as nothing less, even though the final hurdle couldn’t be overcome.
While a dejected and shellshocked Jake White looked irritated and emotional after the match, and he is the master of playing up his side as underdogs, or talking about how far they have come, there is no doubt that this Bulls side has certainly done better than expected.
Think about that for a minute, and take a step back to the beginning of the season. In a competition with teams that are bursting at the seams with international players, the Bulls have but four Springbok World Cup winners, and realistically only one that is in the starting line-up on a regular basis.
MARQUEE PLAYERS CARRIED THEIR CAMPAIGN
Kurt-Lee Arendse is by far the star marquee player and along with Willie le Roux carried the Bulls in many games this season, but in a competition where experience is in teams by the bucketload, the Bulls lack the same punch as some of the other sides.
This is not an excuse for them either. White has shrewdly contracted players who are no longer internationals or are on a par in terms of experience. While he keeps on referring to his side as a young one, they are only in part, while what the team lacks are genuine gamebreaking superstars.
Years ago, when the Bulls were so rampant in the 2000s in South African rugby both Heyneke Meyer and other coaches believed to win the Super Rugby competition, you would need at least 8-10 players of international quality that could walk into any team in the competition. They did that on the basis of what they faced in New Zealand and in teams like the Brumbies.
There is no reason the same shouldn’t hold for the Bulls in the URC. When a side like Leinster boast 23 internationals in a side, and Glasgow are the core of the Scottish national side, then playing them with two current Springboks in a final would always on paper be a disadvantage.
But far from making this an excuse for the Bulls, it should be seen as a step forward for the team. White may have failed at the final hurdle for a second time in three years, but the fact the team can punch above their weight is significant.
They are nowhere near the quality of the Bulls under Meyer and Frans Ludeke, who had the core of a World Cup winning side in their ranks. They have flaws aplenty, and depth is still a problem. While Sergeal Petersen and Devon Williams were superb in their late competition cameos, they also punched above their weight.
LACK OF GENUINE GAMEBREAKERS
The Bulls lack of genuine gamebreakers outside the likes of Arendse, Le Roux, Moodie and one or two others cost them in the end. Glasgow were motivated, determined and used every ounce of experience in their book to combat what the Bulls brought.
So while there is disappointment at the result in the final, the real question is what the Bulls will learn from this?
How will they combat the second half slump that has plagued them all season? How will the fact that their depth is not good enough be viewed this coming season? They have a handful of young talent that is growing, but as White rightly points out, the likes of Cameron Hanekom, JF van Heerden, Rynhardt Ludwig, Jan-Hendrik Wessels and others cannot be fast tracked faster than it currently is being done. Instead the Bulls will be hoping that the arrival of Aphiwe Dyantyi, Cobus Wiese and Boeta Chamberlain will slot in and give them some extra depth where they need it and injuries stay away for large parts of the season.
PITFALLS IN TRANSFER MARKET
While the transfer market has pitfalls and as the Sharks have shown, having too many marquee players can be a negative as well, the balance of the squad will need a lot more attention in the coming months and player development will need to be key.
One of the biggest dangers to the Bulls in coming seasons is that teams learn, on the back of Munster and Glasgow experiences, how to win at altitude at Loftus Versfeld. The Bulls’ home form, for most of the season, has been the key pillar to their success, while they have slowly been learning the realities of touring as often as they do in the Championship.
To navigate the competition they have done well in using their squad wider than they did before, but until they become a side with two equal strength sides, navigating Champions’ Cup and URC will always be a challenge. But this isn’t just a Bulls’ problem, but one for all SA franchises.
Given what has been said above, the next step would be to decide what type of Currie Cup campaign they want. Already players have been given 8 weeks off in line with the agreement and a squad leaves for Limpopo on a pre-Currie Cup camp on Monday.
COHESIVE CURRIE CUP STRATEGY
But simply playing an experienced squad of players in the twilight of their careers will rob the Bulls of a cohesive strategy to bring a number of fringe players who have had little game time this year to the forefront where they can challenge for starting places.
Instead, the goal should be to create a developmental Currie Cup team with experience wrapped around it, so that by next season the same players can bolster the Bulls in any circumstance.
In reality, it is more difficult than it sounds, but made even more so by the Bulls’ insistence over the past few years of extending their squad to the brink by going head on to try and win the domestic competition.
Coming back to the cold, hard reality of a losing finalist on a Monday after the final, White and his coaches need to take time off and reflect. They need to sift the emotion aside and realise they did well to get to the URC final.
They don’t have to be content with that fact, and will forever think they missed an opportunity.
And that is fine.
But they need to harness that disappointment, and place it in the memory banks. They need to reflect if there was something different they could have done, with a stone-cold sober analysis of where it went wrong and where they were lucky.
And they need to return with the same determination that got them to the final. The same resolve and passion, now fuelled by disappointment and the desire to do better next season.
Even though the reality is that, for a losing finalist, the hangover after the final is the worst one and losing in 80 minutes will always feel like a failure.
But the reality is simply that the Bulls, far from the finished item, punched above their weight to get this far. And that means the road ahead has more than enough scope for improvement.