Jake White’s time is up at the Bulls after the 32-7 beating against Leinster at Croke Park in Dublin to determine the winner of the Vodacom URC.
URC Final:
White, the revered coach of the 2007 World Cup-winning Springboks, has instilled pride at the Bulls, but he has won nothing of note. His time is up.
White’s Bulls, over four seasons of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship, have never won the title. There have been three losing finals, one at home, and a quarter-final exit in Cape Town. It is not good enough with the money spent on his squad and the match 23 he has been able to pick every time.
Only Leinster and the Sharks can call on the quality of players the Bulls have, but in the biggest moments, be it in the URC or the Investic Champions Cup or the EPRCR Challenge Cup, the Bulls have been embarrassing in the final stretch.
Dublin’s Croke Park was particularly poor as the Bulls did not fire a shot in trailing 19-0 late into the first half.
It did not get any better in the second half and they may as well have arrived in Dublin this morning, given the 80 minute effort produced.
This was a shocker, to quote the giant commentator Hugh Bladen.
The Bulls were finished before kick-off and the semi-final derby against the Sharks clearly was their final.
For all the talk of the Bulls physicality, they were putty against a Leinster team that finally came good when it mattered most in the URC.
Forget all the talk about how many Test players Leinster had, the Bulls’ Boks numbered double digits, but they played as if they were a club side in the opening 30 minutes when the outcome was determined.
The lack of Bulls fight is more disappointing than the result.
To play 20 matches and make the 21st, one would have expected mongrel and fire.
Instead, the Bulls were physically touched up, they were beaten in every facet of play and a 25 point losing margin actually flattered them.
Leinster were powerful and potent. They needed to get the job done after three seasons of failure and there was not a moment, let along a minute, that they were not winning this contest.
White has been at the Bulls for five years, but internationally he has won nothing.
The Bulls got humiliated by Benetton in the Rainbow Cup final, beaten by the Stormers in Cape Town in the first URC final and clobbered by Glasgow’s Warriors in last season’s final at Loftus, in front of a sold out home crowd.
The defeat at home last season hurt because the Bulls should never lost to a team from overseas, but Saturday’s defeat was confirmation that while White has restored sanity to the Bulls in making them title contenders, he has failed too many times to make them champions.
It is time for change.
