Jake White highlights the momentum and confidence the Vodacom Bulls’ maiden EPCR Challenge Cup win gives the touring team as they compete for silverware on two fronts.
The Bulls beat Bayonne 32-22 on Saturday in the southwest of France to progress to the last eight of the second-tier European club knockout competition.
Speaking post-match from the Parc des Sports, White praised his team’s mental fortitude in tough and unfamiliar surroundings, and in front of a passionate crowd.
“The one thing I enjoyed the most is just how we handled the crowd. It’s a big learning curve for South African sides when they play in France,” the Bulls director of rugby said.
“It’s unique, and especially this Basque region. It’s generally a very tough place to come and play good rugby. I really enjoyed the way we embraced the atmosphere and the way that we started.”
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Sergeal Petersen, Reinhardt Ludwig, David Kriel and Marco van Staden each scored tries, while Keagan Johannes and Johan Goosen kicked seven and five points, respectively.
“We scored some wonderful tries, and that is also very good for us because it’ll give us confidence. To get a result like that with the way we played is fantastic,” White said.
The Bulls established a 15-8 half time lead before withstanding a spirited Bayonne comeback, even navigating a 10-minute yellow card to Akker van der Merwe after the break.
“I can’t underplay the fact that when you’ve come to this region of France, it’s rugby country, and you can feel it. It’s an honour, and it’s important for our players too, because for a lot of them, this is the first time they’ve been to this part of the world,” White, who coached Montpellier to their first Challenge Cup title in 2016.
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Saturday’s victory extends the Herd’s European tour, as they now prepare for a quarter-final against Scottish club Edinburgh at Hive Stadium next week. This kicks off a crucial period for the Bulls, who sit third on the log in the race for the URC playoffs and set to face Munster in Ireland (19 April) and Glasgow Warriors in Scotland (25 April).
“As it stands now, we’ve got Edinburgh. If we beat Edinburgh, then we go to the semi-finals, which means another week on our tour,” White added.
“That means Edinburgh, then Munster and Glasgow, which are three massive clubs that we have to beat in the next month.
“We only brought 30 players this week, and the reason was because we didn’t know how long we’d be here. I’m sure that we will bring in some extra players. It doesn’t look like we got any injuries and we can now build on that momentum into the next couple of rounds.
“I’m looking forward to the next couple of days because we could quite easily have been out of the competition and now we are still alive.
“It’s wonderful to have a club and a team that’s still alive in a competition. It’s three games left and hopefully we will play our best rugby in those three games.”
Photo: Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images
