It may not quite be revenge, but there certainly is an air of “unfinished business” from the Vodacom Bulls’ side as they prepare to face the Hollywoodbets Sharks in their Vodacom United Rugby Championship derby at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.
The Bulls went into their Christmas fixture against the same team in Durban hoping for a win and came agonisingly close, and only had themselves to blame for the defeat.
It was a game where the Bulls dominated the closing stages and caused coach Jake White to question whether he and his management team were doing the right thing, seeing as they created so many opportunities and still came up on the losing side.
White said the game wasn’t anything to do with revenge when quizzed about it at the start of the Bulls’ preparations for the return match, but did say for him it was a “must-win” for his side.
“It’s not about revenge,” White smiled, “But I really think we missed an opportunity there. We really had a chance to win that game and if you think about it, we had one defensive mishap and they scored, we got a card and a penalty try against us, from a turnover ball, and we gave them three points in front of the poles when we didn’t fall on the ball.
“It’s one of those games that everyone in the Bulls team realises we could have won, should have won. That’s sport though, and now we get another crack at them, and it is a must-win for us because we want to win the conference. And we have three big derbies ahead at home, we need to win them.”
FIVE HOME GAMES
The Bulls did almost do the same to themselves in Cape Town last week, conspiring to allow the Stormers to come back into the game when they should have had it sewn up, but the fact they broke their URC duck in the Mother City has been a massive confidence boost to the team.
Now with a run of five home games - three of which are local derbies - they are looking to ensure that they take maximum points from the next group of matches.
That confidence will be important when they face the Sharks this weekend, and will give them a boost going into the match. The fact that they are two from two in the local derbies so far is fuelling that confidence as well.
“It is a confidence boost and both those games were away. As I’ve said before, we had six or seven away games, and we have won five. We could have won all seven and that is a good place to be, considering we have had a number of injuries and have had to travel overseas as well.
“We are in a good position but we know we can’t take that for granted and we are realistic - we know we need to turn that into home wins.”
ONE-POINT WINS
White was smiling all the way when he was asked if it was a good sign that his side, despite their own adversity, could eke out a one point win in Cape Town, and if that confirmed the old adage that good teams find a way to win.
“Ask the Boks,” White laughed, “they won with a point three times to win the World Cup.
“We had so many chances to finish it off in Cape Town, and especially our last conversion would have put us eight points up. I’m almost sure the game then would have taken a different shape. As I said afterwards, we got out of jail, but to be honest we found a way to put ourselves into jail as well.
“It was almost as if we were trying to lose the game. But we haven’t beaten them consistently and we haven’t beaten them there, so you can imagine the boost to the side, not only winning but getting five points. When last did we score four tries against the Stormers, so there were a lot of positive things that came out of this weekend.”