Jake White's Bulls rebuild is taking shape in Super Rugby Unlocked

When Jake White was appointed as Director of Rugby at the Bulls in March, the once-famous Pretoria franchise had won just a single Super Rugby match out of seven in 2020. Then the tournament was abandoned.

White joined the franchise at a difficult time as the union were on to their third coach in three years – Pote Human – who came after John Mitchell and Nollis Marais before him. All had failed to bring success.

Human was let go in May in one of White’s first major acts as director of rugby. During lockdown, White decided that there was no need to keep Human on with no rugby being played.

On 1 May the veteran coach agreed to immediate termination of his contract. He was paid out, but White decided that he may as well start coaching the team he was planning to coach in 2021 anyway.

“There is no guarantee of rugby between now and October, when Pote’s contract ends,” White told Daily Maverick at the time. “I want to start with a clean slate, which I told Pote, and, as a result, I couldn’t guarantee an extension of his contract.

 “I wanted to work with him this year, but the coronavirus didn’t give us that chance. I said to Pote that because we haven’t had the chance to work together, and I haven’t had the opportunity to spend time with this group of players, it would be better to start fresh by bringing in some new players and coaches, whenever that might be.”

Since then former Bulls players such as Bok wing Travis Ismaiel and Bok lock Jason Jenkins have returned and new youngsters like Kurt-Lee Arendse are coming through the ranks. The project that White embarked on has started to take shape.

The Bulls need to beat the Pumas in the final match of the hastily established Super Rugby Unlocked in a fortnight to win the title.

The Bulls are on 19 points after five games, having won four. Saturday’s 30-25 win over the Lions has put them six points clear of the Stormers and Sharks, who both have played one fewer game. The destiny of the trophy is highly likely to be in the Bulls’ hands.

After a scratchy win against Griquas and a loss to the Cheetahs the Bulls have scored three bonus-point victories in a row, which included massive 41-14 and 39-6 home wins over the Sharks and Stormers, respectively.

“It is always tough to play away, so to get an away win is fantastic,” White told the media after the Lions game. “I am very proud of the way we came back in the second half. It was like two different teams played.

“It is not an excuse but what happened was that we had a lot of disruptions. We lost our hooker (Johan Grobbelaar) on Thursday and then we lost our flank in the first five minutes of the game. Then we lost both props,” he added.

“A lot was asked of the bench and the guys that came on. We know that they are a relatively young group of players in terms of the time they have spent together. So, to get them to play 40 minutes like that, when they haven’t really spent much time on the field as a unit is obviously very pleasing.

With entry to European rugby in mind, White is trying to commit some key players to longer term contracts at the Bulls.