Month: October 2024

United Rugby Championship: Jake White says ‘Bulls are not in a crisis’ despite poor form

Although Bulls director of rugby Jake White admits that his team are going through a slump, he does not feel they are in the midst of a crisis and believes they can still compete for trophies this season.

The Pretoria-based outfit have won just two of their last 10 matches across all tournaments and suffered a humiliating 63-15 defeat at home in their Currie Cup opener against the Pumas last week.

Despite his team’s poor form, White is not panicking and said the challenge of being competitive in three tournaments – the United Rugby Championship, Champions Cup and Currie Cup – has been tough but he believes his players will be stronger from the experience.

“We’re in a situation we’ve never been in before, we’ve got young players who have never been in this circumstance before, and it’s a challenge we’ve got to get through,” he told the Citizen.

“But how can you be in a crisis when you’re still in the top eight of the URC (United Rugby Championship) and the top 16 of the Champions Cup and you’ve lost only one Currie Cup game? I don’t believe that’s a hole.

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Backs Bulls to bounce back

“I really, genuinely believe these are situations you’ve got to go through as a group of coaches and players, and I know we will get through this.

“I know the squad we have will learn from this and there’s still a long way to go (this season). Nobody has won any trophies at this point in time.”

The former Springbok head coach said he has been in similar situations before during his coaching career and is backing the Bulls to show improvement during the latter part of the season.

“I think we’re always going to be under the pump but we had to try certain things,” he said.

“Sometimes when you rearrange your squad you lose cohesion, but you end up having players who believe they can play.”

Premiership: Northampton Saints pick up bonus-point success over basement side Bath

Northampton bounced back from last weekend’s thumping at Bristol Bears by easing to a 45-26 victory over Bath in the Premiership on Friday.

Tries from Robbie Smith (2), Juarno Augustus, Angus Scott-Young, Tom Collins and James Grayson saw the Saints to a bonus-point win at Franklin’s Gardens.

Fin Smith converted five of those crossings and added a penalty goal as Bath remain rooted to the bottom of the Premiership standings in a disastrous season.

The visitors’ try scorers were Tom de Glanville, Tom Dunn (2) and Tom Doughty, with Ben Spencer and Orlando Bailey contributing points off the kicking tee.

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On his 100th appearance for Northampton, Fraser Dingwall led them out and it was his run that should have seen Saints take an early lead.

Deep inside his own half, the centre stepped past two defenders on a 45-metre run. Number eight Augustus was up in support to collect Dingwall’s pass but Sam Graham knocked on to blow a golden opportunity.

Almost immediately, Bath made them pay by taking an eighth-minute lead when back-rowers Miles Reid and Josh Bayliss combined well to send De Glanville on a 30-metre run to the line.

Northampton‘s response was swift with first Robbie Smith finishing off a line-out drive before Augustus broke away from another to give them a 14-7 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Saints lost prop Paul Hill to a yellow card for a deliberate offside with their opponents quickly capitalising when Dunn crashed over from a line-out.

The hosts then suffered a further blow when centre Matt Proctor was helped off with a leg injury to be replaced by Rory Hutchinson.

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Hill returned from the sin-bin with no further damage done to the scoreboard and in time to see Bath lose centre Jonathan Joseph to a shoulder injury.

Northampton regained the lead with a straightforward penalty from Fin Smith to leave them with a 17-14 advantage at the end of a keenly-contested first half.

The home side began the second half strongly. A burst from Alex Waller took them close to Bath’s line and the pressure was maintained for Scott-Young to force his way over.

Bath’s woes continued when first Bayliss was yellow carded for his team’s persistent offsides before Robbie Smith scored his second try from another line-out drive.

Bayliss returned from the sin-bin and his side were immediately rewarded with a second try for Dunn but Saints sealed victory by scoring the best of the night when they broke out of defence for Collins to win the race to touchdown Tommy Freeman’s kick ahead.

With five minutes remaining, Doughty scored Bath’s bonus-point try which saw them draw level with Newcastle on 27 points as the two clubs battle to avoid finishing bottom of the Premiership table but Saints had the final say with their sixth try scored by Grayson.

Official | Serge Gakpé joins Amiens on loan

Amiens have completed the signing of 30-year-old Genoa forward Serge Gakpé, who signs a one-year deal after terminating his contract in Italy.

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The former-Monaco man played 16 times last term, scoring just once in the process and will hope he can regain goalscoring form in France.

The Togo international completed a medical this morning and finalises his move back to Ligue 1 with Amiens, although it is reported that Angers were also interested.

S.H.