Cape Town — Bulls coach Jake White said he doesn’t think “there’s anything they could have done better” after letting in three second-half tries in a 33-9 Champions Cup last-16 defeat to Toulouse in France on Sunday.
The Pretoria side were in with a chance of causing a massive upset when flyhalf Chris Smith slotted his third penalty to make it 12-9 to the hosts on an afternoon where it was windy, rain pelted down and the sun shone at Stadium de Toulouse.
But two tries within four minutes by lock Emmanuel Meafou and wing Mattis Lebel suddenly made it 26-9 in the third quarter, and replacement lock Thibaud Flament added a third with 15 minutes left to send Toulouse into the quarter-finals, where they will face the Sharks at the Stade Ernest-Wallon this Saturday.
White had spoken passionately to the team in the change-room at halftime, and the message seemed to have been heeded by the players early in the second half.
But when asked by IOL Sport what had gone wrong after Smith’s third penalty, White said in the post-match press conference on Sunday evening: “No, nothing went wrong. I think we just played so well in the beginning, and we played against a really good team.
“We needed to score next, and that team knows … A lot of international players, and they knew how to manage the game, especially in that first 20 minutes after halftime.
“Once you have to play catch-up rugby against Toulouse, it’s difficult. It’s not a Test match – you’ve got to then start taking risks, start playing from your own half, and that becomes difficult.
“I don’t think there’s anything they could have done better. They played against a really good team … At 12-9, maybe – the margins are small. We kicked that ball through early in the first half, and the ball runs into touch … I think Canan (Moodie) and Kurt-Lee (Arendse) probably would have scored there.
“You need those things to go your way. You need to build pressure, especially when you play away from home.
“There were 16 games of Champions and Challenge Cup rugby this weekend, and almost everyone won their home game, except for the two teams who played Champions Cup earlier in the season, Lyon and Clermont, who won their (away) games in the Challenge Cup.
“You find it hard to win away from home, so much so that … That is probably what the lesson is. You’ve got to do well at home in the pool stages, and make sure you get yourself a chance to play at home.”
Most of English referee Matthew Carley’s 50-50 decisions appeared to go against the Bulls, with one clear Toulouse forward pass being ignored, which led to the home side eventually scoring a try.
But the Pretoria team have now lost 10 matches in a row across all competitions, and need to pick things up quickly as Griquas – who beat Western Province at Cape Town Stadium on Saturday – visit Loftus in the Currie Cup on Friday.
“The only call that I think was a little bit of a difficult call was that scrum penalty (that the Bulls didn’t receive in the 63rd minute). They broke from the scrum early, we were going forward, and from that, they got the ball and went and scored. In the context of the game, it was 26-9 at that stage, and it became 33-9,” White said.
“Had it been a penalty to us and we kick into their half, who knows … Maybe we get a try, and it’s 26-16. But that’s nitpicking about that scrum. I generally thought after he gave us a free kick and we took the scrum again, we would probably get rewarded at that scrum.
“All I do is read about that (10 losses), and yes, it is something that you have to change – and it will change, there is no doubt in my mind.
“When you enter a competition and you win the first eight games and lose the next eight and make the playoffs, you have exactly the same amount of chances that the team who won 16 games in a row have.
“This is a difficult competition and we are out of this one now, but we’ve just got to keep working until we can turn the corner on those other ones.
“Anyone can add up however many you want to, how many consecutive whatever – it’s irrelevant. The bottom line is that we’ve got to make these (United Rugby Championship and Currie Cup) playoffs, and that’s our main goal now. It’s not about how many we’ve lost, how many we’ve won, how many we should’ve and could’ve won …
“We’ve got to make sure we keep working hard to make the playoffs of all the competitions we’ve got left.”
Points-Scorers
Toulouse 33 – Tries: Emmanuel Meafou, Matthis Lebel, Thibaud Flament. Conversions: Thomas Ramos (3). Penalties: Ramos (4).
Bulls 9 – Penalties: Chris Smith (3).
IOL Sport