Jake White confirms Jan Serfontein’s Bulls return as Handré Pollard and Co to mount fresh URC title bid

In the aftermath of the 32-7 drilling at the hands of Leinster, Bulls coach Jake White was beating his ‘Bring the Boks home’ drum once more – and the Pretoria side will be getting their fair share next season.

White admitted that the Bulls were utterly outplayed by the streetwise Dublin outfit in the United Rugby Championship final at Croke Park on Saturday evening.

But the former Springbok coach again reiterated the gulf in class between the two sides, with the Irish province boasting several top-class Test players in their line-up – including Springbok giant RG Snyman and All Black star Jordie Barrett – and that not even losing scrumhalf Jamison Gibson-Park on match-day made a material difference to their performance.

White said that he wasn’t less disappointed about seeing the Bulls lose their third URC final in four seasons compared to the previous title deciders against the Stormers in 2022 and Glasgow last year.

But to compete on an equal footing, he voiced his oft-stated view about having the best Springboks playing for South African franchises.

In that regard, White confirmed a well-known secret that former Bulls centre Jan Serfontein will be returning to Loftus Versfeld next season after a number of years at Montpellier.

Previously, the Bulls had announced that Bok stalwart flyhalf Handré Pollard will be back in Pretoria on July 1 to spearhead a fresh URC title challenge.

“I would like everyone to understand it. Just because you go to the dance doesn’t mean you’re going to get the main dance every time either,” the 61-year-old mentor said.

“And playing in three finals doesn’t give you the right to win it. And there will always be opportunities. When I looked back at last year’s final, there were chances.

“In the first final, we were very, very young and very new. And now we played against a really good, well-balanced, oiled side.

“So, there’s going to be new challenges next year again. And I need to sit with those decision-makers and just find out what we need in order to step up.

“Next year, we signed Handré Pollard. He’s coming as a 10. Signed Jan Serfontein, who’s a real young prodigy that was at Montpellier.

“And then again, it’s two really good signings: Paul de Wet, the scrumhalf from the Stormers, who’s coming to join us, and Nicolas Janse van Rensburg, who’s a lock-flanker, who’s played at Montpellier and has played Springbok rugby as well.

“I’m not for one minute saying that’s going to solve it, but we’re going to have 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: Leinster will continue going forwards.

“And that’s why we’re going to have to find a way. If we’re going to win this competition in the next couple of years, we’re going to have to beat Leinster. There’s no doubt in my mind about that.

“It’s just by chance they haven’t been in the finals in the last four years. Just by chance. And I’ll say it again: no other team has played them with their full-strength team at home in a knockout game.”

White added that he was going on holiday now, but he will have plenty to ponder on over the next few weeks before pre-season starts for the Bulls’ next URC campaign, which starts on September 27 against the Ospreys at Loftus Versfeld.

A number of the Bulls squad will be joining the Springboks now for the international season, including Pollard, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Wilco Louw, Ruan Nortjé, Marco van Staden, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Cobus Wiese, Willie le Roux and Canan Moodie, while injured loose forwards Cameron Hanekom and Elrigh Louw are out for the rest of this year.

“Even though it’s straight after the game, the lesson I’ve taken from that is the one I’ve been telling you: we need more international players to play in our province,” White said.

“I need what Leinster have. I need to be able to fight fire with fire. And that’s not going to change. I mean, I’m going to ask you a question: Leinster-Toulouse, Leinster-La Rochelle: What do you think you need to win those games? Academy players or seasoned internationals?

“I think the biggest cheer tonight was for Jordie Barrett: he’s not Irish. So please, don’t take it the wrong way.

“That’s what I’d love to get. I’d love to be able to sit in a coach’s box and 19-0 up, say ‘RG (Snyman), warm up’, and put him on and let him menace the defence like he did tonight.

“Even though you know he’s going to do it, he still does it. So, it’s irrelevant, you know, asking me... That has been from the day I took over this job. You know, I keep banging the same drum, guys.

“If you’re playing against 23 internationals, and I think today you guys, you were short, you only had 22... I mean, there’s a complete another difference. As I said, I watched that show the other night against the head.

“Now you guys are, I say it over and over, you’re the benchmark of what clubs are trying to achieve. You’ve got international coaches. You’ve got foreigners that come in, and they take your team to another level.

“I’ll say it again: I’m envious, really envious, because if you’re going to fight fire with fire, then you want to go to a gunfight – you can’t go with a knife.

“I’m less gutted because I think people are so naive... I mean, I don’t know what’s changed?

“From first year to now, we played Leinster when we lost 31-3 at the Aviva Stadium. And what’s changed? What do you think’s changed for us? So, we’ve got four years older and believe it or not, they’ve got four years older.

“So, yeah, I mean, I’m not less gutted. And I think obviously when you lose a final, but I’m also just completely and utterly realistic.

“And I’m more frustrated, because I knew it’s like watching a horror movie and you think the ending is going to be different.

“I’ve coached the Brumbies to beat the British and Irish Lions. The way you do that is you actually need the big sides to play badly.

“So, dreamers are guys that think you take youngsters and you just wave a wand and you beat international players.

“I think sometimes the problem is you guys (the media) take it the wrong way.

“You’re in a dream world if you think that a club team that’s made up of... I counted, we had eight guys who weren’t internationals finishing off the game.

“How do you expect eight non-international players who’ve just come into the club and they play provincial rugby, to beat Ireland?

“So, I’m not less gutted. But I’m just more, I suppose, maybe more frustrated.

“Maybe I’m going to have to rethink about where we are as a group, and what we can do.

“And I can only control the controllables. We can make guys a year older. That’s also why I put all those guys on.

“Nobody in this competition has played Leinster with their full-strength team in a final since we’ve been playing. Nobody.

“So, I’m sure every other coach that caught this team, any other team caught this team today in the URC would have exactly gone through what we went through today. Any other of those 15 teams.”