Leinster like a Formula One car, reckons White

 Leinster head coach Leo Cullen, left, in conversation with Vodacom Bulls head coach Jake White. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Jake White issued a stark warning to the rest of the URC after his Bulls side was brushed aside in Saturday’s Grand Final at Croke Park: Leinster are only going to keep moving forward.

The 2007 World Cup-winning South Africa head coach has now led the Bulls to three URC finals in his four seasons in charge of the Pretoria franchise and come up short on each occasion, to the Stormers in 2022, Glasgow 12 months ago on home soil at Loftus Versfeld, and now a 32-7 humbling by Leinster in Dublin.

Yet while that alone was a bitter pill to swallow, the 61-year-old was philosophical about this most one-sided of defeats as Leinster finally confirmed their status as the competition’s leading team by winning their first trophy since their 2021 success in its former guise as the PRO14.

In pre-match media interactions, White referred to Leo Cullen’s side as “the benchmark” for club rugby and so it proved on Saturday as a near-faultless Leinster surged into 19-0 half-time lead through tries from captain Jack Conan, Jordie Barrett, and Josh van der Flier. Two second-half penalties from Sam Prendergast added to the fly-half’s two conversions in the opening 40 before academy fly-half Fintan Gunne’s try and fellow replacement Ross Byrne’s conversion in the dying minutes reduced the Bulls’ only try on 50 minutes from Akker van der Merwe, converted by Johan Goosen, to a consolation.

The Bulls head coach said Leinster were “not a normal rugby side” in his post-match press conference, comparing seeing Saturday’s final unfold to “watching a horror movie” and conceding it would be difficult for his second-seeded side to bridge the gap to the new URC champions. Where that leaves the other 14 clubs is another matter entirely.

“Where to for the Bulls?” White pondered. “We’ve got to find ways in which we can catch up because I repeat, Leinster aren’t going to come back towards the field. Leinster are going to keep moving forward.

“It’s a bit like a Formula One racing car, if your pit stop is three seconds and theirs is two, and you think when you get it to two you could catch them but they’re probably on 1.3 by then and you’re still behind,” he said. “Jacques [Nienaber] has added [defensive cohesion] and I’m sure Leo will find other things they need to get better at. Our job now is to make sure that we can find ways to fast-track whatever we can fast-track so that we can compete because we’re going to find it hard to beat teams like this at Croke Park and Aviva if we don’t catch up the things we need to catch up.”

Leinster’s superiority has left the rest of the URC to play catch-up, White said, refusing to wallow in the Bulls’ third near miss in four seasons.

“Just because you go to the dance doesn’t mean you’re getting to get the main dance every time either. Playing three finals doesn’t give you the right to win it,” he said.

“There will always be opportunities; when I look back to our first final there were chances and the first final we were very, very young and very new. And now we’ve played against a really good, well-balanced, oiled side so there’s going to be new challenges next year again.

“I need to sit with decision- makers and just find out what we need in order to go a step up. For next year, we’ve signed Handre Pollard, that’s coming as a 10. We’ve signed Jan Serfontein. Paul de Witt, the scrum-half from the Stormers is coming to join us and Nicholas Janse van Rensburg who’s a lock/flanker who’s played at Montpellier and who has played Springbok rugby as well.

“I’m not saying that’s going to solve it but we’re going to have a look and see what else we need in order for our team to go to the next level because there’s no doubt that Leinster won’t come backwards. They will continue going forward.”