Vodacom Bulls Director of Rugby Jake White said that poor discipline helped the Stormers to build scoreboard pressure in the first half, as six of the eight penalties conceded by the Vodacom Bulls was in the first 22 minutes.
“In the first half I thought that was probably the worst we’ve played this year. It was a game where there was a try disallowed, another try disallowed, a breakaway into their half, turnover. It could have gone either way."
“If you give any side six penalties in 22 minutes to start off the game you put yourself behind the eight ball. It wasn’t so much the eight conceded, it was the six early on in the game."
“They’re a good team, they’re good at home and they need a good start, they get a good start, you don’t take your chances and you give them six penalties, it becomes very tough."
“But it takes nothing away from the fact that we really thought we could win this game because we’d been playing well, and we trained well this week.”
White said referee Marius van der Westhuizen had a good day on the field.
“Overall I don’t think there was influence by anyone other than that we had our chances and we should have taken them.”
“There are certain things you always wish go your way, the wheeling of the scrum in the first half looked the same as the wheeling of the scrum in the second half but there were two different calls."
“I thought the common sense today was spot-on. Mpilo Gumede’s tackle was as legal as tackles come, Gerhard Steenekamp changed his body height, made head contact and it was a yellow card."
“Hartzenberg’s foot was on the line. I’m happy they found that angle, sometimes we come here and they don’t find that angle. I can’t moan about the calls."
