Bulls coach Jake White wary of Springbok-loaded Sharks

Bulls coach Jake White has challenged his troops to front up against the Springbok-loaded Sharks in their United Rugby Championship (URC) match at Loftus on Saturday.

The Bulls go into this potentially explosive encounter having notched back-to-back wins over the struggling Lions while the Sharks were stunned by the less-fancied Stormers in Cape Town last weekend.

In their 20-10 loss, the Sharks started with the Bok front row of Ox Nché, Bongi Mbonambi and Thomas du Toit and boasted Siya Kolisi, Lukhanyo Am, Makazole Mapimpi and Sbu Nkosi.

Because of their embarrassment of riches, Sharks coach Sean Everitt was able to include Springbok fringe players Aphelele Fassi and Jaden Hendrikse in his starting line-up.

White said the clash against the Sharks will be like a final as both teams look to improve their positions in the URC standings before they take on European opposition.

“We have a massive game against the Sharks and the Zebras after that,” he said.

“Next week against the Sharks is a final. Earlier in the season we played them at their place and we didn’t get a point, and to be fair you have to win your derbies.

“It is a bit like the Heineken Cup where when you lose home and away to somebody, you put yourself behind in terms of points. It’s like a mini-final and we have to make sure we are good enough to beat them at home.”

Since the 2019 World Cup the Bulls have lost senior players including Lood de Jager‚ Handré Pollard‚ Jesse Kriel, Jason Jenkins‚ RG Snyman, Burger Odendaal and Trevor Nyakane, and White is rebuilding the team.

“The one thing that it is going to take is time. I don’t want to sound philosophical but you can’t speed up time.”

“It takes time. I said this week the Crusaders came last in 2006 and ended up becoming the most dominant side in Super Rugby. It was through the lessons they learned. You couldn’t fast track it.

“I say it every week to you [the media], Ruan Nortje is young, Johan Grobbelaar is young, Elrigh Louw is young. They are young in terms of age and experience.

“This is a completely different competition to what we are used to. I know we are playing local derbies but the reality is that the margins are so small. Against the Lions last weekend, we were 20 minutes away from getting a bonus point and it didn’t happen.

“Maybe that bonus point comes back to bite you, but we have to make sure that next year when we have a group that is older and they have learned from situations.”