Cape Town – It’s the morning after the night before, where the Bulls had a nightmare outing in their 35-21 United Rugby Championship (URC) defeat to the Glasgow Warriors.
But while the sun may not have been shining in the Scottish port city on the River Clyde – there was a 90 percent chance of rain forecast – the Pretoria side would have woken up on Sunday morning to get ready to travel to Limerick for their next game against Munster.
They didn’t look like URC finalists from last season in a totally uncharacteristically sloppy display at Scotstoun Stadium on Saturday night, with missed tackles, knock-ons, wrong options on attack, a devastating ball-in-hand approach from Glasgow and the sometimes-questionable refereeing of Andrew Brace all coming together in a perfect storm.
But they won’t have coach Jake White waiting to kick them while they are down following their first loss of the season.
“Sometimes you get a bad day at the office. In the last couple of games, we got good starts and some points on the board,” said White.
“Tonight, we had to play catch-up, and it was a bit difficult. I think the pace of the 4G (pitch) and the accuracy of Glasgow – and their physicality at times – just probably caught us, and we had to play catch-up. All credit to them.
“I just said (to the players) I’m disappointed, and they know I’m disappointed. But they themselves are disappointed too. I’m not a coach who shouts and screams and belittles them now, and tries to break them down.
“We’ve got a long tour and long season, and one poor performance doesn’t mean you are not going to win the competition. Last year this time, we had won one game.
“So, the margins are small. On Monday morning, we will be back on the training field. We are going to do some homework on Munster, and it’s not going to get any easier as Munster are under the pump – I think they’ve lost three of their four games.
“They’ve also got a great record at home, and have lots of international experience.
“I’m not going to shout and scream. We will work it out together as a group, with the coaches and players. I can’t fast-forward experience and age. If you consider, Ludwig is 21, Elrigh Louw’s 22, Jan-Hendrik Wessels 21… that’s what I’ve got. Unfortunately, that’s what you’ve got to work with.
“And I am saying unfortunately, we can’t fast-forward that. But I know that if we spend some time and we learn through these performances – and they get to understand how tough this comp is, then they are going to become better players. And that’s all I can wish for: that they take some learning out of these performances.”
The Bulls were out of the race before halftime already when impressive scrumhalf George Horne wrapped up the bonus point with Glasgow’s fourth try.
While the visitors showed some fighting spirit to score two tries and ‘win’ the second half 14-7, the lack of physicality from the forwards, a general lackadaisical effort in defence and poor accuracy on attack will make the post-match video session an uncomfortable prospect.
But White did not blame the travel for the defeat, and gave credit to a dynamic Glasgow side that scored five tries in cold and wet conditions.
“Look, I’m not going to make excuses and say the travel (is to blame)… The Lions came here and they had 27 hours to get to Wales, and ended up winning three of their games – so it can be done,” he said.
“We just weren’t good enough, it’s very simple. We weren’t good enough. We looked like young boys tonight, and we missed some tackles and gave them a good start.
“They played really well in the beginning of the game. They hung onto the ball for long periods of time and put us under some pressure. They got some good momentum early on and scored a try quickly, which makes it much tougher.
“They’ve got a home crowd there… Everything that I suppose they could get in their favour worked for them, and we then found it hard.
“But there is a positive that we didn’t get any injuries, and we did score 14 points in the second half after they were so far ahead.
“Had it been for one or two options, we might have been able to get two bonus points there because we were close to scoring a fourth try, and that would’ve made us within seven. So, those are the margins, but we didn’t get that. Now we’ve got to get up on Monday and prepare for Munster.”
Scorers
Glasgow 35 – Tries: Matt Fagerson, Sebastian Cancelliere, Scott Cummings, George Horne, Josh McKay. Conversions: Horne (5).
Bulls 21 – Tries: Kurt-Lee Arendse, Bismarck du Plessis, Janko Swanepoel. Conversions: Chris Smith (2), Morné Steyn (1).
IOL Sport