Jake White still livid over Bulls’ travel schedule ahead of key Champions Cup clash
Bulls director of rugby Jake White.
Bulls director of rugby Jake White is still unhappy over his team’s complicated travel schedule ahead of their Champions Cup quarter-final against Northampton Saints at Franklin’s Gardens on Saturday.
The Pretoria-based outfit advanced to the Champions Cup quarter-finals courtesy of a deserved 59-19 win over Lyon on Saturday at Loftus Versfeld at the weekend.
One would think that White and his players would be delighted after clinching their spot amongst the last eight of the prestigious tournament, but the former Springboks mentor hit out at SA Rugby after the Bulls did not receive any details from the governing body about possible flights ahead of the last-eight encounter.
And he was still unhappy when speaking to the media after the Bulls held their last training session in Pretoria on Tuesday before flying out to the UK.
The situation is ‘not ideal’
“I have said it before that it’s not ideal when you talk about high-performance sport and being able to be competitive,” the former Springbok coach said.
“There are not too many sporting teams that will leave on eight different airlines on a Tuesday evening to [get to] a Saturday night game.
“For whatever reason, and I am sure the powers that be will sort it out, but it isn’t what was expected. We were sold that it is going to be an overnight flight, that is why we are playing in Europe.
“Two weeks ago we went to Leinster and it took us 28 hours to get there and 27 hours to get back, and whether we like it or not it comes at a cost. Whether we fly business class [or not]. I am fortunate the board pays business class for our starting team, which is a fantastic gesture.
“It is a huge bonus [for the starting XV] but no sporting team flies 28 hours and with eight different airplanes, some to Birmingham or London where they are going to land at different times.”
White revealed that despite beating Lyon by a 40-point margin, his players were still recovering from knocks sustained in that game and they will depart for the Northampton encounter with some members of the squad not fully recovered yet.
“In an ideal world, I would have liked to have left on Wednesday night and landed on Thursday. When you leave on Tuesday, guys are sore after a really tough game against Lyon,” he explained.
“Because it was 59-19, people assume it was not a tough fixture. It’s a French team that plays a certain style and they ask different physical attributes of you. 59-19 can sometimes be a tougher fixture for you.
“Leaving on Tuesday gives you limited time because on Monday the players were sore, on Tuesday you are trying to complete as much preparations as you can and you are going to get there on Thursday.
“You can’t have two teams training against each other because you don’t have enough players to tour. All those factors are important, and I want to remind you that Leinster came here last year and sent a team that we beat by 60 points.
“Leinster, who have more than 30 internationals, had to do that to give themselves a chance of winning two competitions. We are talking about a club that has invested years and years into academy development, producing Irish internationals. Even them, they had to juggle [due to travel logistics].
‘Manage what is given to us’
“We only manage what is given to us as best as we can, and what has been given to us is a short week. On Tuesday we fly out, Thursday limited training time because of limited numbers.
“We arrive on Thursday and hopefully by lunchtime everyone should be in the hotel and we have to be ready for a training session that afternoon.
“The difficulty is coming back because everyone has to go back via different journeys around the world. Some come back via Doha, Dubai, Frankfurt. It is not ideal but we will get there.”
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