Wonderful tries, but Jake White enjoyed how Bulls ‘handled Bayonne crowd’ in Challenge Cup win

As much as the Bulls scored some eye-catching tries, what impressed Jake White the most about Saturday’s 32-22 Challenge Cup playoff win over Bayonne was handling the fanatical home crowd.

In addition, White even praised referee Christophe Ridley for “not getting sucked in” by the over 10,000 supporters to give home-town decisions.

The Bulls played some enterprising rugby on attack at times, but also had to grind out a number of tenacious defensive sets to keep Bayonne at bay at the Stade Jean Dauger.

The Pretoria outfit started in impressive fashion with a 16th-minute Sergeal Petersen try that saw Devon Williams cut through the middle, and they pounced just before halftime when Reinhardt Ludwig rounded off a Zak Burger dummy and offload.

David Kriel’s somewhat lucky try early in the second half seemed to put the Bulls away at 22-8 up, but Bayonne hit back quickly via flank Remi Bourdeau.

Captain Marcell Coetzee – who was the player of the match with 14 tackles and 13 carries – and his team dug deep, though, as they absorbed the fight-back from the hosts and closed out the victory with Marco van Staden’s touchdown with 12 minutes to go.

Now the Bulls will face Edinburgh – who beat the Lions 24-12 on Friday – in next weekend’s quarter-final in Scotland.

“I suppose the one thing I enjoyed the most was just how we handled that crowd. It’s a big learning curve for South African sides when they play in France,” White said in the post-match press conference.

“It’s unique, especially this region. This Basque region, Bayonne, Biarritz, is generally a very difficult place to come and play good rugby.

“I would think the most important thing that I really enjoyed is the way we embraced the atmosphere, and the way we started.

“We also defended for so long, and they got three points. We scored some wonderful tries, and that will give us confidence, especially as we didn’t have Canan (Moodie), Kurt-Lee (Arendse), Willie (le Roux)...

“So, to get a result like that, with the way we played, is fantastic. But I can’t underplay the fact that when you come to the Basque region, it’s rugby country.

“You can feel it when you walk in the streets, in the hotel, in the stadium... It’s important for our players – and a lot of them are in this part of the world for the first time – to experience it, and embrace it and play like they did today.

“I’m sure this will be a wonderful memory for them as well.”

The Bulls pack got stuck in from the outset, with prop Wilco Louw again dominant in the scrums and winning some penalties.

Young lock JF van Heerden never stopped going in his best performance for the franchise, while scrumhalf Burger reminded the coaches of his qualities as a playmaker and even in defence, where he made seven tackles.

“JF’s come on in leaps and bounds, calling the lineout now, and I’m sure he’s going to get better as he had a guy like Ruan Nortjé coming on at halftime,” White said.

“Therefore, he had to be a bit more aware as he had another jumper who can also call the lineouts.

“Him and Zak, and I’m not singling anybody out – even Devon, Sergeal and Stravino (Jacobs) at times were much better than in previous games, because they are getting more experience and confidence that the group are making them better.

“Credit to the coaches and the players coming in, and it’s a nice place to be where we are now. We’ve got a lot of nice rugby to happen, and a lot of opportunities coming up for us.”

Points-Scorers

Bayonne 22 – Tries: Federico Mori, Remi Bourdeau, Tom Spring. Conversions: Cheikh Tiberghien (2). Penalty: Baptiste Germain (1).

Bulls 32 – Tries: Sergeal Petersen, Reinhardt Ludwig, David Kriel, Marco van Staden. Conversions: Keagan Johannes (2), Johan Goosen (1). Penalties: Johannes (1), Goosen (1).