Jake White celebrates Bulls’ comeback URC quarter-final victory and valuable lessons learned against Edinburgh

Bulls director of rugby Jake White praised his team’s fighting spirit after their comeback win over Edinburgh in Pretoria on Saturday to secure a home semi-final in the United Rugby Championship (URC).

Having trailed their Scottish visitors 21-8 at a stage after an early yellow card, the Bulls mounted a superb fightback before and after halftime that blew the opposition out of the water to secure the victory at Loftus Versfeld.

They scored six brilliant tries and the interplay between the backs and forwards was outstanding for most of them. Although they leaked five tries, of which at least two were questionable, their defensive effort in the final 20 minutes will give them plenty of confidence heading into the next match.

However, the experienced coach feels they didn’t play as well as they could have. He lamented their yellow cards especially, although he believes they might have been a bit harsh.

“We learned our lessons from the last time we played them in Edinburgh,” White said.

“We were 24-7 down and today 21-8 down. Not many teams would come back in a quarter-final when you are down by that much and win it as convincingly as we did at the end. One lesson we can’t ignore is that we can’t play with 14 men and give them two tries while down and think you can always come back and win.

“I am just very happy that there was the fight and resilience and learning. I always talk about being in this competition and learning from what happened previously. We were down but got a (winning) result. Whereas the last time we played them, we didn’t.”

According to White, people think the team placed seventh should automatically lose to the team that finishes second. He made reference to Leinster losing to Scarlets and his side during the round-robin season and being pushed by the same Scarlets in their quarter-final on Saturday evening.

The Bulls mentor added that some choice words went down from the coaching booth to the field when they were so far behind.

“A couple of choice words were said. I can’t say that on national TV,” he laughingly said.

“But what are you going to do? You can’t shout and scream and behave like a lunatic up there. I just had confidence that it was an 80-minute game and although they had a fast start, going from 21-8 to 21-18 in that space must’ve given the guys belief that we learned from last time.”

Edinburgh head coach Sean Everitt said they knew the first 20 minutes were going to be vital and he was happy with how they reacted from the first whistle.

“We wanted a fast start to counter what the Bulls do to their opposition at Loftus and got that. But a couple of loose kicks, which does happen in rugby, and the Bulls were outstanding with how they cut us on the counterattack. They blitzed us in the second half.

“It was 13 minutes (in the second forty), and we conceded three tries. I’ve been to Loftus enough times to know it can happen. But the boys fought until the end and did well to come back within nine points. That penalty at the end, where we went for the corner, could’ve potentially been three points to put the pressure back on the opposition.

“Well done to the Bulls. They did what they are good at and got the result needed.”