Bulls must 'look inward' to improve after Sharks URC mauling, says Jake White

Bulls director of rugby Jake White conceded that his team was out-muscled by a Springbok-filled, powerful Sharks team that overpowered them at Kings Park on Saturday.

The Sharks scored five tries en route to a 47-20 five-try bonus point victory over last year’s United Rugby Championship (URC) beaten finalists.

After losing to the Stormers in Cape Town, the Bulls suffered at the hands of some big Bok names, such as Bongi Mbonambi, Eben Etzebeth, Ox Nche, Grant Williams and Siya Kolisi, who all had good games.

READ | Neil Powell hails Sharks' 'big win' over Bulls: 'It's a sign of a confident team'

White said there was no way to instantaneously fast-track his greenhorns to match the Sharks superstars' level.

"We’ll get it right. That’s one thing about sport, it takes a while," said White.

"You can clearly see it’s two massive teams with lots of Test experience. This time last year, we were in the same boat, bottom of the log and feeling [unsure] whether we were going to see the playoffs.

"That's the character we’ve got to show. We have to look inward and see where we can improve.

"You can’t fast track some things. I was speaking to (former Springbok) Kaya Malotana and he was saying to me that we have a young front row [against] a pack of five Springboks – it becomes difficult.

"Those guys have to grow and develop. It’s tough. You don’t want to be at the receiving end of that.

"But sometimes you’ve got to give credit. It’s a tough place to play, a very good team and once they turned the screw and got their tails in front and we had to catch up – and they got their power game going – it became an uphill battle.

"I thought we fought quite bravely at times."

White said his side would have to show character to weather another stretch of