Bulls must be tactically smart

Coach Jake White is looking for a “rebound performance” from the Vodacom Bulls against Munster at Thomond Park on Saturday.

The Bulls’ Challenge Cup campaign ended last week with a 34-28 quarter-final defeat to Edinburgh, leaving White’s team with the sole goal of winning the Vodacom URC for the first time.

They are currently third on the log, with two tough tour matches against Munster and Glasgow followed by easier home assignments against Welsh opposition (Cardiff and Dragons).

Munster are fifth on the log with a 50% win record, but beat La Rochelle in their Champions Cup round-of-16 match in France and appear to be peaking at the right time of the season.

“We will have to play well to beat them,” White said on Friday. “Tactically we will need to be smart.

“You need to match them with the things they do well and find a way to be tactically aware of the things they don’t like because if they get the things they like from the opposition, they are very good at it.

“With both of us having lost in the quarter-finals of our European cup campaigns [Munster to Bordeaux in the Champions Cup], we will both want a rebound performance. That’s something I’m looking to get from the group tomorrow – a rebound based on the fact that we didn’t play our best last week.”

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White has made several changes to his starting XV for the Limerick clash, with Jan-Hendrik Wessels and Cobus Wiese coming into the pack and Embrose Papier, Johan Goosen and Canan Moodie into the backline.

“It’s the best side we can put onto the field,” White said. “We’ve had to give players like Ruan Nortje, Embrose Papier and Johan Goosen game time [off the bench] to find their feet [after returning from injury] and they’re now ready to start.

“Ideally we would have liked to have done that with Cobus Wiese too, but he’s coming straight in.

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“I’m hoping now that this is the beginning of a five-game stint [including a quarter-final] where we can start putting the best combinations on the field. I’m hoping we can keep the squad together and put the little pieces of the jigsaw puzzle together in terms of what we’ve been lacking, whether it’s finishing lineouts, finishing in the 22 [on attack], defensively being sharper and not conceding penalties at the breakdown.”

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