- Jake White remained bullish and upbeat after his Bulls side went down narrowly to the Sharks at Kings Park on Saturday afternoon.
- White said there was a steeliness him and his coaching staff were trying to engrain into the current Bulls team.
- "This is a young team that is growing together and we’ll learn a lot from this," said White.
Jake White remained bullish and upbeat after his Bulls side went down narrowly, 32-29, to the Sharks at Kings Park on Saturday afternoon.
The visitors came to within a Morne Steyn penalty at the death of snatching a draw but the Springbok No 10 uncharacteristically missed, quite badly.
It was the second such ending to Bulls defeats since White took over from Pote Human this year, the other being the 19-17 loss to the Cheetahs where a Chris Smith conversion would have also tied the match.
"I’m obviously disappointed," said White.
"We had a chance, but not only at the end. We were leading 29-20 at one stage.
"I thought we are getting on a bit of a roll and the momentum was in our favour.
"We then made a couple of mistakes from our own half, lost our lineouts and turned the ball over from kick-off.
"Yes, I’m a little disappointed things didn’t go our way but at the same time I’m appreciative of the margins being so small.
"As I’ve said before, this is a young team that is growing together and we’ll learn a lot from this. We’ll take a lot from this result."
The Bulls, who won Super Rugby Unlocked last month, demolished the Sharks 41-14 at Loftus in October.
When Cornal Hendricks scored their second try in Durban, with momentum heavily in their favour, it seemed as if the men from Pretoria might pull away again and close out the win.
However, the Sharks clawed back and scored a try through reserve hooker Kerron van van Vuuren from the back of a lineout drive.
Curwin Bosch then orchestrated the winning moment, a kick-pass wide left to wing Yaw Penxe, who had the easy job of catching and dotting down what turned out to be the winning try five minutes from time.
"I’m very happy with where we are," White said despite of the result.
"I’m not taking anything away from anybody but we’ve only been together for six months, of which half was in lockdown period.
"Who would have thought that we would have been ahead in Super Rugby Unlocked and now in the Currie Cup?
"I’m fully aware of the fact that a guy like Schalk Erasmus, who came on today as a substitute, has been injured since the Green and Gold game.
"For him to come in and have to find his locks when he hasn’t really had time to develop with them ... that’s going to come with time. It’s going to take repetition at our training sessions.
"Marnus Potgieter getting beaten in the air on the cross kick to Sbu Nkosi – that’s probably one of the best wingers in the world (Nkosi).
"I’m fully positive that we will grow and we’ll become better. We’ll put the hard work in.
"Those guys need to understand that we will make mistakes.
"We still have our destiny in our own hands and we can still make the playoffs."
White added that there was a steeliness and resolve that him and his coaching staff were trying to engrain into the current Bulls team, who have become the hardest team to beat in South African rugby.
Both their losses – to the Cheetahs and Sharks – have so far come within less than three point margins and came down to a final goal-kick.
"I’d like to believe that any team this coaching group coaches becomes tough to beat," he added.
"That’s right, if two kicks go over we draw both games. At least we know that we were 17-9 down at one stage and were under the pump just before half time.
"We had to regroup at half-time. To go from 17-9 to taking the lead at 29-20 was very pleasing.
"But we want to make sure we get to the 'W' at the end of the game. "