[ad_1]
- Bulls fans who can’t make it to games won’t recognize him during the lockout, but his team is getting the full effect of Jake White.
- White said he kept a cool head with his post-game message after the Cheetahs’ loss at Bloemfontein.
- The Bulls dismantled the Sharks 41-14 on Saturday, not the first time a white team has done a number on the Durbanites.
Bulls rugby director Jake White said he kept the boys calm after a narrow loss to the Cheetahs two weekends ago in a post-game pep talk that laid the groundwork for the Sharks’ demolition the Saturday.
Not long ago, a loss like Bloemfontein’s could have sparked some kind of losing streak for the Bulls and a mental breakdown, but, with White in charge, the Bulls are seeing the full value of money in sports psychology.
Fans who couldn’t make it to games won’t recognize him during the lockdown, but the Bulls are getting the full effect of Jake White and it showed in the Sharks’ 41-14 surgical dismantling of six attempts, a week after losing 19 -17 against the Cheetahs.
White said he didn’t have to do much to turn the loss into a near-perfect performance in a week, save to keep a cool head in camp.
“After the Cheetahs game, I told them what I told the media: If that kick (from Chris Smith) had happened, everyone would have said everything was fine,” White said.
“We lost that conversion and that was the difference between the teams. Don’t forget, Free State are the reigning Currie Cup champions.
“The message immediately after the game was: let’s not lose hope. The reality is that we were one step away from getting a draw against Free State and they had just pumped the Pumas the week before.
“It was about the way we reacted after the game last week. They understood that not everything was pessimism.
“We were down 19-6 and we came back and lost 19-17. You take a lot of heart from it and a lot of positives from it. “
White has done a number of demolition jobs on the Sharks in the past, especially in 2013 when their Brumbies team ripped them apart at Kings Park, scoring 24 unanswered points in the first half en route to a 29-10 victory.
That was a Sharks team that was undefeated in three straight games and had reached the Super Rugby final the previous year, losing to the Chiefs in Hamilton.
During Saturday’s Super Fan warm-up game, White’s team put the Sharks back on their feet when the Bulls charged with a 49-28 victory that was the harbinger of what happened at Loftus last Saturday.
When asked about the complete display of dominance, again by a team he coached, over the Durban men, White shrugged and attributed it to the Bulls who finally took their chances.
“I don’t know what the Sharks have, but maybe because we did so well against them last time, it’s always easy to cheer on the players,” he said.
“We knew they would come back with improved performance. What was wrong from the last two weeks to this was that we started taking risks.
“The last few weeks we probably had the same opportunities and we never used them. What really impressed me the most is how our bank comes in and has a massive impact.
“When you consider that we have finished very well three weeks in a row, the conditioning gives our reserves the ability to move forward and make a significant change.”
