Bulls must back Johannes as Jake hopes for ‘fantastic catalyst’

The Bulls may have edged out Leinster with a post-hooter David Kriel penalty, but Jake White knows that his team are far from the finished product heading into the business end of the season.

There is a campaign-defining next month coming up, where the Bulls will have to juggle their resources across the United Rugby Championship and Challenge Cup.

They are clearly prioritising the URC, judging from their selections and the importance of winning their ‘league’, as opposed to a virtual knock-out competition like the Challenge Cup.

The Pretoria side are also virtually assured of Champions Cup rugby next season by finishing in the top eight, as they are currently third on the URC log with 45 points – one ahead of the Sharks, four behind Glasgow and 13 off leaders Leinster.

But they have won two and lost two in their last four games.

If they want to earn silverware over the next few months, they need to find their rhythm on attack once again, as well as sort out their discipline as they gave away a red and yellow card against Leinster, and conceded several penalties.

They were missing a number of backline stalwarts such as Johan Goosen, Stedman Gans and Canan Moodie – not to mention the Japan-based Kurt-Lee Arendse – and hopefully all of those players will be in prime condition for the play-offs.

It is also about getting the right mix at the current time, as next up for the Bulls are Zebre – who lost 35-34 to the Sharks in Durban at the weekend.

That will be followed by Bayonne in the Challenge Cup last-16 on April 5 in France, and then a possible quarter-final the next week, either in SA or Europe.

Then it’s another two massive URC clashes against Munster and Glasgow at Loftus Versfeld.

Goosen is training already and may come into the mix against Zebre in Pretoria on Saturday (2.45pm kick-off). But with his injury history, Johannes should rather be given another start against the Italians.

He had some good touches against Leinster, with a couple of fine kicks to touch and classy passes that put his outside backs into space. But you got the feeling that the Bulls were playing around Johannes instead of letting him call the shots as the main playmaker, with too much responsibility given to scrumhalf Embrose Papier and fullback Willie le Roux.

There’s no doubt that Johannes has the skill-set and temperament to run the show for the Bulls, but he needs to be backed fully to get the attack buzzing.

It will also be interesting to see whether Stedman Gans is back for Zebre, as he is adds some real spark at outside centre, with Kriel more useful at inside centre.

When asked about Johannes’ performance in the post-match press conference, White said: “Shame... when I say shame, any guy who wears the number 10 jersey always gets evaluated first.

“I remember when I was coaching the Springboks, every time I called the number 10, I used to say I’m really thankful that you are wearing this jersey because you are going to get more critique than me.

“That’s the way it is, whether it was Butch James or Jaco van der Westhuyzen – I knew that poor guy was going to get... it either goes well and you’re the general, or you didn’t play well and it wasn’t good enough.

“I thought he (Johannes) did some really good things today, but it’s not an all-round performance – he knows that.

“But we got a win, and I’m sure the bonus of winning and the excitement of being part of it for almost 80 minutes – because he came off with cramp – will make him a much better player going forward.”

But looking forward, White hopes that the comeback from 17-6 down against Leinster will result in the Bulls playing with greater confidence going forward. He will also hope that star No 8 Cameron Hanekom’s lower back “spasm” is not too serious.

“(The half-time chat) wasn’t panicky or emotional. It was just about we haven’t played, so let’s just make sure that in the second half (Bulls must cut out the mistakes),” White said.

“But we almost did the same thing as we gave them a penalty, another penalty, and they were in our 22 by doing nothing. That’s game smartness ..."