Bulls mentor White waxes lyrical over Bok boost, Willie: 'I can't believe all the flak he gets'

Bulls director of rugby Jake White waxed lyrical over the impact of his returning Springboks, especially franchise debutant Willie le Roux after his excellent performance in the Bulls’ 53-27 win over Connacht on Saturday.

The Bulls welcomed back their Bok contingent in Marco van Staden, Canan Moodie, and Le Roux while Kurt-Lee Arendse was granted compassionate leave following a family bereavement.

White, who coached the Boks to Rugby World Cup success in 2007, said he couldn’t understand the criticism that’s being consistently levelled at Le Roux, who has been capped 93 times by the Boks and has won the World Cup twice with them.

White said Le Roux played like he’s been part of the furniture and will become an integral part of the team as the long season in the United Rugby Championship starts to take shape.

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"I can’t believe he gets all the flak that he gets," White said.

"It’s the first time he’s played for the Bulls, but it looked like he’s been with us for four years when I first joined the team.

"He’s got unbelievable time, he’s very skilful, clever and I’m really happy that he’s come to the Bulls because you can already see the impact he has with guys like Canan and Kurt-Lee.

"It’s almost like having a coach that’s going on and as long as he’s playing as he is and stays healthy, it’s going to make it hard for other players to kick him out."

White was also effusive in his praise of Van Staden, who played an understated role in the Bulls’ domination of the Irish side on a sultry Saturday afternoon.

Van Staden had to do 10 minutes off the field when starting hooker Akker van der Merwe was yellow-carded for a deliberate infringement at