‘I’ve never experienced that in my life’ – Jake White after Bulls’ victory over Ospreys
Bulls director of rugby Jake White.
Bulls director of rugby Jake White admitted to being confused after his side’s United Rugby Championship (URC) encounter against the Ospreys had a confusing ending in Swansea on Saturday.
The Pretoria-based outfit started their overseas tour with a 29-19 bonus-point victory over the Welsh region and are one of three unbeaten teams left in the URC – along with table-toppers Leinster and the Lions.
Despite the Bulls‘ impressive win, there was a bizarre situation during the latter stages of the clash with the Ospreys.
The Bulls were already reduced to 14 men after inside centre David Kriel was red carded by referee Eoghan Cross in the 49th minute for a dangerous tackle.
In the 71st minute, their replacement prop Alulutho Tshakweni was yellow carded for making head contact in a tackle. However, with first choice loosehead prop Gerhard Steenekamp off the field after failing a head injury assessment, the Bulls were without more front-row cover.
Referee left confused
It led to a farcical situation as referee Cross didn’t know who had to be replaced and eventually Bulls skipper Ruan Nortje eventually departed the field before an uncontested scrum took place in the 77th minute.
Starting hooker Johan Grobbelaar, who left the field in the 53rd minute, came on in Nortje’s place and the match eventually finished without further controversy.
White admitted that the confusion towards the end of the match was something he had never experienced before in his career.
“You’re not allowed to put loose forwards in the front-row because that’s to stop teams from doing so deliberately,” he told Sport24.
“However, I have been coaching for 42 years and I’ve never been involved in a game where there’s so much of: ‘Put him on, take him off’.
“I’ve never experienced that in my life and then the captain came off. I don’t know who took him off and I don’t know if the ref knew.
“However, he came off and that was the first time I ever experienced that and I don’t think in that three minutes, anyone knew what was happening.
“We were fortunate to get through that.”
The Bulls were also reduced to 13 men earlier in the game. That occurred in the 51st minute when Elrigh Louw was yellow carded when he got in the way of an Ospreys pass.
The hosts capitalised on their numerical advantage as Ryan Conbeer crossed for a converted try shortly after Louw’s yellow card.
Debatable yellow cards
White is adamant that both Tshakweni and Louw’s yellow cards were debatable.
“One was a mistake, and one was debatable,” White said.
“I don’t think Elrigh tried to knock the ball down. He tried to catch it, but you can’t change it because it is two yellows and a red card.
“That’s something we need to look at, but I’ll handle it, but if Elrigh catches that ball, it’s a good catch.
“If someone tackles someone into Alulutho’s channel, he’s upright because he’s not expecting someone to be there when being tackled.
“It wasn’t a discipline issue, or the players doing their own thing. I mean, David carried the ball to a shorter player.
“I asked the ref if David didn’t stick his arm out and the 10 hit his head on David, would he got a red card? The ironic thing is that the 10 didn’t get off.
“The ref said the 10 was hit in the throat.”
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