Jake White has further explained his decision to retain the Vodacom Bulls squad of veterans and youngsters for the Champions Cup clash against Exeter Chiefs on Saturday. DYLAN JACK reports.
On Tuesday, the Vodacom Bulls confirmed the squad of 29 players that will be travelling to Exeter for the Pool A Champions Cup match.
The squad is largely the same that did duty in the win over Lyon in Pretoria, with exciting youngsters such as Muller Uys and Sibongile Novuka paired with veterans Nizaam Carr, Bismarck du Plessis and Morne Steyn.
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During a press conference on Tuesday, White explained, with 24-hour trip to Exeter and a Vodacom United Rugby Championship match against the DHL Stormers on the horizon, he had to be clever about managing his squad.
“We would like to do well in both competitions, but I’m also a realist,” said White. “People need to appreciate, for you to win the Champions Cup, it means you have to beat the best on three consecutive weekends.
“I don’t want to be defeatist, but rather realistic. Do we in South Africa have the squads to match La Rochelle, Leinster and Toulouse on three consecutive weekends? Especially if we have to play away from home.
“Saying that, we are not going into every game saying it doesn’t count. It’s not saying the URC is more important. We want to win as much as we can.
“But to be fair, if you look at elite sport, there’s no way athletes can fly around the world in economy class to play Exeter away and then fly back around the world and play against the Stormers, who are URC champions.
“This has nothing to do with saying that one competition is more important than the other. It’s about using the resources that are at your disposal.
“Exeter will also play us here in 40°C as they come out of their winter, so it will be a daunting task for them as well. If we can win that game, we give ourselves a good chance of finishing in the best 16 teams and moving to the playoffs.
“If we had a week off next week, then definitely yes, I would take my main guys and give them a game. But the SA Rugby mandate is that we can only play them for 32 matches per season. There have been 13 Test matches this year and there will be, potentially, 21 games in the URC.
“You have to be very smart about how you use your players.”
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White also used the opportunity to further plead his case to bring the prime South African players plying their trade in France and England back to the local franchises.
“It does sound doom and gloom, but these are the lessons we have to learn if we genuinely want to win it. We need the guys playing abroad to come back and play for our franchises. If you took all the South Africans playing in this competition for the foreign teams and put them into our franchises, it would be a completely different competition.
“Wearing my Bulls and South African hat, let’s hope we can get to that stage. Let’s hope we can attract those players back to play for us. It’s not doom and gloom in terms of that I don’t think we can win it in the future. All I am saying is that we need to be mindful of playing URC, Currie Cup and Champions Cup at the same time, with the squads and budget constraints we have.”
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