Vodacom Bulls Director of Rugby, Jake White agreed with visiting Connacht coach Pete Wilkin that winning the URC and Champions Cup has become balancing the on-field with off-field planning, more than ever before.
Wilkin told the media at the post-match press conference that he was more disappointed that his side could not score a fourth try to at least get a losing bonus point on the night than losing at Loftus Versfeld.
Wilkin agreed that qualifying for the playoffs with a fully fit squad is more important than being unbeaten for the season before the playoffs.
White was told what Wilkin had said and completely agreed with the Connacht coach.
White said: “Winning away games are like bonuses and home games are non-negotiable. You look at the record, and I think there is about a 65 per cent chance of winning your home games, across the board.
“Playing away from home, every bonus point you can get is like gold.
“And I think it is important to explain to everyone when I say travelling for four weeks. Wonderful, you stay in nice hotels, and you fly internally with chartered planes. I don’t want anyone to think touring is not nice,” the coach said honestly."
“But you’ve got 30 players on tour, and you have five guys, like today Ruan Nortje can’t train this week, and two other guys have got HIA’s and two others have got niggles, then you are training with 22 guys on the field."
“Anyone knows you can’t train for four weeks with 22 guys and expect that you are going to get better over a month."
“So you can do shadow and you can’t do anything that is going to injure players and you can’t do with contested whatever, so you might have four forwards out. So you can’t even do proper scrums and line-outs."
“So that’s what I think when I say it’s tough to be away for four weeks, it’s not the fact that it’s nice and it’s your job, I just think from an organisations and coaching point of view, it’s very difficult to keep guys for four weeks, and when you’ve got niggling injuries, to make sure that the practices and the development of your group, especially early on."
“Because this is the time that you are putting the building blocks together for the backend of the competition."
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