Jake White: 'We played 14 minutes with 14 men deliberately

The Pretoria franchise controlled proceedings from the first whistle in their slaying of the Dragons on Saturday, up 26-0 at the break. The Bulls then ran in four more tries to increase their lead to 41 points in the closing stages.

Comfortably ahead and with second place on the URC table secured, White threw a curveball at his team: he yanked off talismanic captain and lineout caller Ruan Nortje without replacement.  

"I took Ruan Nortje off and we played 14 minutes with 14 men deliberately," the World Cup-winning coach told the press.

"I wanted to see if we're clever enough at breakdowns and to manage the game with 14 players and how we operate the line-out with a new caller. We had two different line-outs, which worked perfectly as well.

"I wanted to put them under pressure at the back end [of the match]. Also, selfishly, I didn't want to risk a guy like Ruan Nortje in a game when we already won it, and I need everyone fit and available for the playoffs."

While white lamented the passing of former Bulls star Cornal Hendricks, he hoped he would continue to be an inspiration for the Bulls in the knockouts.

"Sporting teams, sometimes they need this and you look at what happened to Munster when they lost their coach [Anthony Foley in 2016]. They just kicked into gear and they ended up winning," he continued.

"Winston Churchill once said: 'In adversity comes opportunity'. I think it was a learning curve for these guys as well, which is part of coaching as well. It's not just about the rugby, it's sharing that with them.

"And it was emotional. They got a week off and now we can come back and really use that emotional energy that sporting teams sometimes need in the sports that we play."

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