As he looks towards the 20 September kick-off of the United Rugby Championship, Vodacom Bulls coach Jake White says he’s excited about the growing experience in his squad and singled out Ruan Nortjé as an example of it hopefully benefitting his team this season.
Speaking at a United Rugby Championship Coaches on the Couch session on Tuesday, White said the Vodacom Bulls were probably as close as they’ve ever been to getting the balance right between youth and experience in their squad.
“It’s exciting times for the Vodacom Bulls. In three United Rugby Championship campaigns, we’ve now got, I think, nine Springboks in the squad and that will make us so much stronger because we can almost pick a Springbok in every position now which is a great place to be when you want to win this competition."
"We’ve played in two Grand Finals in three years, and then to get the new additions we have and having momentum going into the Carling Currie Cup playoffs is obviously a nice position to be in. I’m looking forward to seeing how we can kick on from last season,” White said.
It's exactly this experience that White is hoping will help them overcome what he identified as the reason behind their defeat to the Glasgow Warriors in the Grand Final at Loftus Versfeld last season.
“I reflected a lot with the group after the Grand Final and I think what hit us was that we played the Hollywoodbets Sharks with a really strong Springbok group, then Benetton who have the majority of the Italian team, then Leinster with the majority of the Ireland team, and then the Glasgow Warriors who have a lot of internationals as well. I think the collective attrition and effort it took to play four consecutive games like that took it out of us in the last round. I think the final was a collective of what happened in the last month of the competition."
"It was probably a bridge too far and I’m hoping now with the squad we have that we will be a bit tougher to last four weeks at that level, and also change the squad around in the season so that we don’t lose our legs in the back end of the competition.”
White also praised Nortjé as a perfect example of a player coming into his own and being able to impart his growing Test experience to the rest of the team.
“There’s a success story if you ever want to hear one. He came from a small school, he wasn’t a provincial player as a junior, he basically came in as a late developer through university, and now he’s played the All Blacks and beaten them in a Test match. He’s incredibly disciplined. He trains hard."
"He works hard and puts incredible amounts of detail in. I don’t think people are aware that he has his own laptop and analysis system so he works hours and hours behind the scenes on his game and lineouts, and that’s why I think he can contribute like he does into the Springbok set-up."
"I’m looking forward to him coming back as well because of all the experience he picked up with the Springboks. He can only get better. He’s still young for a lock forward. I’m looking forward to seeing how he comes back and brings whatever he’s learned into the group.”