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The Jake White complaint after Bulls end four-week trip with a loss
By Liam Heagney
Bulls boss Jake White has called on URC officials to review its fixtures scheduling after the toll being away from home for a month took on his side in Europe.
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The Pretoria franchise is five matches into a 2023/24 campaign that began with an October 22 hammering of the Scarlets at Loftus before they embarked on a four-game northern hemisphere visit that produced mixed results.
Defeats at Ulster on October 29 and at Edinburgh on November 17 book-ended their in-between wins at Zebre Parma and Cardiff, and the Bulls will now hot-foot it home to South Africa to host Connacht next weekend.
White exited Scotland believing talks must happen about the advantage home teams in Ireland, Scotland, Italy and Wales are given when a South African team is on the road for as long as the Bulls were.
Speaking to reporters after his team’s 22-31 loss at Edinburgh, where they had co-captain Marcel Coetzee red-carded on 41 minutes and then Cameron Hanekom sin-binned just two minutes later, White said: “I keep on reminding you that it is four weeks on tour and we are going to have to look and see whether this is the way we want to keep it going forward.
Johan Goosen flexin' top of the league behaviour ???#BKTURC #URC | #EDIvBUL pic.twitter.com/FsCi7tG7qU
— BKT United Rugby Championship (URC) (@URCOfficial) November 17, 2023
“This is a massive advantage for the home teams when South African sides are away for four weeks. One of the reasons we had to leave Super Rugby was we wouldn’t have to be away from home for a month.
“I’m sure that we will have to look at that because you can see what sort of toll it takes on the team. Four weeks away from home is tough.
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“I was chatting to some of the local coaches here and some teams when they play in Italy, they fly in and out on the same day. Some teams travel from Edinburgh in Scotland to Wales and they fly on the same day, it’s almost like going to Cape Town (from Gauteng) and back on the same day.
“I don’t think people appreciate how tough it is for South African sides to be away for four weeks with the reduced number of players. With a reduced squad, you can’t have the same training sessions (with) rotation at training.
“If you want to be a great side, you must make sure that you win all the games – and that is what we are trying to create at the Bulls. I’m not saying that we are happy with 10 points on the tour. It is tough to tour for four weeks.”
- Click here for all the RugbyPass stats on the Edinburgh vs Bulls game
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The writer here ignores the fact that, following on from not taking the penalty kick, the All Blacks did manage to score a try a few minutes later. Not directly from the penalty awarded, but it is speculation to say that had they opted to take the koi they would have won. Even if they kicked it, which was no guarantee, they would still be trailing and would have had to start again at half-way.
Go to commentsI would be surprised if Sales Opoku Fordjour and Northampton’s Tommy Freeman are not in the team, Anthony Watson is also one that could go on the wing. One thing I must say is that the front 3 will get destroyed against a team like South Africa.
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