Jake White doesn’t want the Bulls to go back into their shells

Cape Town - While the Bulls have made up some ground on the United Rugby Championship standings in recent weeks, they are still a considerable distance from becoming title contenders.

The loss to the Stormers at Loftus Versfeld on January 22 hurt the Pretoria side, as they produced a superb second-half comeback to lead 26-18 at one stage, only to go down 30-26 after a late Paul de Wet try.

So, gaining nine log points with consecutive victories over the Lions – 34-10 at Ellis Park and now 21-13 at Loftus on Saturday – was something coach Jake White said he would’ve taken if offered beforehand.

But the Bulls are still languishing in 12th position on 16 points, with the Stormers the top South African team in 10th place on 18 points following their 20-10 triumph over the Sharks, who are 11th with 16.

White has been able to make a number of quality signings over the past two years, and will hope to see a return on investment.

Unfortunately for him and the Bulls, some of those players are injured, including flyhalf Johan Goosen, lock/flank Jacques du Plessis and lock Sintu Manjezi, while young prop Mornay Smith is also still sidelined.

“The one thing that it’s going to take is time, and I don’t want to sound philosophical, but you can’t speed up time,” White said after watching his team miss out on a four-try bonus point against the Lions.

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“I said this (last) week that the Crusaders came last in 1996 in Super Rugby, and they ended up becoming the most dominant Super Rugby team through the lessons they learnt.

“You couldn’t fast-track (that). Ruan Nortje is young; Grobbies (Johan Grobbelaar) is young; Elrigh (Louw) is young,