White toasts youth policy as Bulls make semis

Bulls director of rugby Jake White says his youthful team has overachieved by making it to the semifinals of the United Rugby Championship. 

The Bulls defeated the Sharks 30-27 in the quarterfinals, in an epic encounter at a packed Loftus Versfeld at the weekend.

Both sides scored three tries, three conversions and two penalty goals, they were level at 27-27 at the 80-minute mark. The game swayed in the favour of the Bulls in stoppage time when flyhalf Chris Smith slotted in a dropkick in front of the poles to give his side the vital points needed to win the tough tie. 

White’s decision to keep Smith on the field instead of bringing on “Mr Reliable” Morne Steyn from the bench, was validated. The win for the Bulls means they will travel to Ireland to take on Leinster on Friday (8.35pm) at the RDS Arena in Dublin.

“I always knew it was going to be a tough game; there are nine Springboks in there and five World Cup winners, so it was always going to be a tough task,” said White in his post-match press conference. 

“This group of players has only been together for two years. It’s irrelevant how old they are, we had two 19-year olds on the 23 match day squad. These guys are playing beyond their ages, and beyond their time as a group. 

“Next week they will get the ultimate test against Leinster. I’m very proud of what’ve done, we’ve probably achieved far beyond what people expected or what our players expected. That’s the exciting thing about sports,” he said. 

SA has two teams in the URC semifinals after the Stormers beat Edinburgh 28-17 in the last eight at Cape Town Stadium on Saturday evening.

The Stormers will also meet an Irish side in the semis as Ulster travel to Cape Town on Saturday.