Jake White believes the Vodacom Bulls’ emotional response to Cornal Hendricks’ death fuelled their big win against Dragons at Loftus, and tees them up for the URC playoffs.
Saturday’s nine-try 55-15 victory secured second spot for the Herd on the table, setting up a quarter-final against Edinburgh in Pretoria on 31 May and a potential home semi against either the Sharks or Munster should they advance.
Prior to kick-off, White, the Bulls and Dragons along with supporters paid tribute to former Springbok and Bulls star Hendricks, who passed away last week from a heart attack.
“It was a bit tough, I must say, you forget how young these guys are. I’m an older guy and you still feel like, ‘gee, this is not how it should be,’” the Bulls director of rugby said post-match.
“I just said to them now that it was a different week, something that we’ve never experienced. I even finished with 14 men as well. I took ‘Soplepel’ [skipper Ruan Nortje] off, just because I wanted to see whether we could defend and play without a lineout caller.”
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The Bulls showed no mercy against the bottom-of-the-log Welsh tourists, with David Kriel and Cobus Wiese crossing early before Sebastian de Klerk finished a slick move orchestrated by Willie le Roux. Akker van der Merwe added a fourth try before half time to establish a commanding 26-0 lead.
Despite a brief Dragons revival through tries from Huw Anderson and Rhodri Williams, the Bulls responded ruthlessly with Van der Merwe grabbing his double and Sergeal Petersen scoring twice in quick succession. Marcell Coetzee and Devon Williams completed the rout that left Dragons with a dismal record of 17 defeats in 18 matches this season.
“I deliberately did that because I want to see whether or not [they can cope] if I put them into situations where we can’t always control those things,” White explained regarding Nortje’s substitution. “And the message is, we’ve done all the hard yards now to get into the playoffs. We needed a why, and this is the why.”
White, meanwhile, allayed fears about Wiese’s availability for the playoffs after the lock was substituted midway through the first half. “He got a back spasm. Apparently, he got it in the warm-up. I told him if he gets a back spasm and scores 40-metre tries he can do it every weekend,” the Bulls boss half-joked.
“Again it’s precautionary. When he said his back was a bit sore, I didn’t want a guy to get a referred [pain] like tearing a hamstring etc, so I took him off. The doctor reckons he’ll be fine if he does the right treatments for the next two weeks.”
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A week’s break before the URC resumes provides welcome recovery time for White’s troops. “Someone asked me if not playing next week is a blessing; for a guy like Cobus it’s fantastic that we get another week to get our squad ready [for the quarters],” he added.
White believes the unfortunate passing of Hendricks could galvanise the Bulls during the knockout stages, as the veteran coach highlighted the broader life lessons for his young squad.
“Sporting teams, sometimes they need this and you look at what happened to Munster when they lost their coach [Anthony Foley in 2016]. They just kicked into gear and they ended up winning,” he said.
“Winston Churchill once said: ‘In adversity comes opportunity.’ I think it was a learning curve for these guys as well, which is part of coaching as well. It’s not just about the rugby, it’s sharing that with them.
“And it was emotional. They got a week off and now we can come back and really use that emotional energy that sporting teams sometimes need in the sports that we play.”
Photo: Gordon Arons/Gallo Images
