Jake White’s Bulls not perfect but bonus-point win is what they wanted

Cape Town - The Bulls may have battled to produce consistent phase-play on attack, but the fact that they scored six tries against Zebre on Friday night should bode well for the rest of the United Rugby Championship.

That was how coach Jake White felt about the 45-7 bonus-point victory over the struggling Italian outfit in Parma.

White was a relieved man afterwards, adding that the five log points meant that “at least we are still alive” in the competition as the Pretoria side are now in 10th place on the log with 23 points from 10 matches.

It wasn’t always an eye-pleasing performance, and a yellow card to Marcell Coetzee made things even more difficult, with Zebre scoring through flyhalf Antonio Rizzi soon after the Bulls captain left the pitch.

But White praised the character of his players as they scored 45 unanswered points. Hooker Johan Grobbelaar hit back with a touchdown from a driving maul, while Embrose Papier, Coetzee, Arno Botha, Lionel Mapoe and Kurt-Lee Arendse dotted down as well, with flyhalf Chris Smith slotting six conversions and a penalty.

“We want to play well every time we play. I thought we played quite nicely tonight,” White said.

“A lot of opportunities, and we had one try disallowed for a knock-on. So, it’s what coaches want – short turnaround, one week, left on Monday night, got here and got the job done. Mission completed, and now we’ve got two weeks before we play URC again against Munster.

“At least there’s enough to work on there. You need one of these games. They lost seven games (before the Bulls match), but they are going to start winning. They are not going to keep losing forever and ever and ever! The law of averages tells you someone’s going to be on the end of a result where they get