Vodacom Bulls coach Jake White has called Irish powerhous Leinster “the envy of every club in world” as he marvelled about their depth and dominance of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship.
White said the fact that Leinster’s Director of Rugby Leo Cullen could head home with some of his coaching staff and players to prepare for next weekend’s Heineken Cup semifinal against Toulouse was testament to the depth and success of their systems.
And these were envied worldwide, White added.
The Bulls named an unchanged side from the one that beat Zebre last weekend for their clash with the unbeaten URC log leaders, even though they know it is a second-string Leinster side as an entire match squad sits back in Dublin.
“I take a lot out of that. That’s where all clubs are trying to get to. Imagine if we could go through a season where you are unbeaten. You can take some of your main players back, take your director of rugby home and still feel confident that you’re going to get a result,” White said.
“There is no way they are going to put up the white flag, you saw what happened last week. That’s what all clubs are trying to do. Every club in the world is trying to get to where Leinster are right now.
“With 30 odd internationals, an academy system that is really working well. It’s definitely the envy of every franchise. Every club side in the world would love to be Leinster.”
White added that he wanted to get the continuity going, especially as the Bulls need to win the game as they still need to secure their qualification for next season’s Champions’ Cup and want to keep the momentum they took out of the Zebre game into the playoffs in two weeks’ time.
“We’re also getting to the stage now where we are getting to the back end of the competition and the stage now when we want to keep that continuity going. We have a lot of guys - like Johan Goosen - who have just come back from injury. Marcell Coetzee will join us soon. Nizaam Carr wasn’t in the mix this week but he will join us next week.
“Hopefully everyone that we have in our club now will be available to play in these knockout games. This is no different. It is a knockout game and we need to win it to make sure we stay in Europe.”
The Bulls need to win the game to ensure they are still in the Champions’ Cup and could make their own playoff role a bit easier with a solid victory.
Vodacom Bulls: Kurt-Lee Arendse; Canan Moodie, Stedman Gans, Harold Vorster, David Kriel; Johan Goosen, Embrose Papier; Elrigh Louw, Cyle Brink, Marco van Staden, Ruan Nortje (captain), Ruan Vermaak, Mornay Smith, Johan Grobbelaar, Gerhard Steenekamp.
Replacements: Bismarck du Plessis, Dylan Smith, Francois Klopper, Janko Swanepoel, WJ Steenkamp, Keagan Johannes, Chris Smith, Cornal Hendricks