Jake White hails Bulls' grit after Munster away win: 'One of our biggest'

Surprisingly, their narrow victory at Thomond Park was the first for a South African side in the history of the URC competition. It also completed a clean sweep of victories for the Bulls over Irish sides this season, following earlier wins against Connacht, Ulster and Leinster.

In a tight game marked by just one try apiece for both sides, the Bulls retook the lead via a Keagan Johannes penalty in the 73rd minute and then spent the closing minutes of the match defending for dear life before they finally forced a Munster handling error.

"It's massive and one of the biggest wins we've had as a group," White said. "More importantly, the way we played... I knew it was going to be an 80-minute slog and one of those games that goes to the wire. We really wanted to win this game, so from a momentum, confidence and log point of view, we are very happy."

"It was probably the best defensive set we've had for a long time. We had to keep them out and by not giving a penalty away, showing discipline.

"In the past, we would have maybe made one or two mistakes there and let ourselves down. We need to defend like that in the next month and a half against some really good teams."

The Bulls were handed a setback in the second half when the match went to uncontested scrums after the hosts were unable to provide a front-row replacement.

"I wonder what the shape of the game would have looked like had the scrum stayed competitive," White said. "Let's be fair, [Munster tighthead prop] Oli Jager went off reasonably early [14th minute] and he's obviously a very good scrummager. We got the rub of the green for the time that he was off, because they then had a new prop [Stephen Archer] coming on straight into a game much sooner than he would have expected.

"In some ways, uncontested scrums counted against us, but let's be fair, it also meant every time we defended well and turned the ball over from a Munster knock-on, then we were guaranteed to get the ball from that scrum as well. So it works both ways."

The Bulls now head to Scotland to face second-placed Glasgow Warriors, where a win would see the Pretoria outfit move above them on the log, potentially setting themselves up for a home semi-final.

The Warriors famously beat the Bulls in Pretoria in last season's URC final to take the crown.

"Nothing today would have changed the importance of next week's game," said White. "I can tell you that after the last final, everyone wrote on their wall '25 April 2025'. We always knew that the next time we played against them was going to be an opportunity for us to play as well as we can.

"It's nice to go there with momentum and a positiveness, but I can promise you that from the day we started pre-season, 25 April was always going to be the game that we were going to go hard for."

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