Rassie Erasmus hailed the Vodacom Bulls’ win against Leinster, yet doesn’t believe the result has made the July showdown between the Springboks and Ireland any easier.
Jake White’s men edged Irish giants Leinster in Pretoria, with the Glasgow Warriors’ dethroning of defending champions Munster setting up a historic Vodacom URC clash at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.
Beaten finalists in 2022, the Bulls have bounced back from last season’s quarter-final defeat to secure a first home final, breaking a competition record along the way.
The Bulls have been the URC’s big entertainers this season, scoring 85 tries in the round-robin stage at an average of nearly five tries per match. The team also surpassed Leinster’s competition record for most points scored with 639.
Last week’s clash on the Highveld was billed as the curtain-raiser to the two-Test series between the Boks and Six Nations title-holders Ireland in the Republic.
Erasmus on Tuesday named a Pieter-Steph du Toit-led 23 for the world champions’ season opener against Wales at Twickenham this week, and speaking during a Bok conference, the head coach applauded the success of the Bulls.
ALSO: Bulls wide awake to Glasgow ‘trap’
“We played Ireland in our pool match [at the 2023 Rugby World Cup] and they beat us; we’ve got lots of respect for how they do things,” he told reporters.
“We almost see Leinster as the perfect club in terms of bringing players through, and their success and planning. I’ve coached there [in Ireland] and I’ve seen their model.
“Flipping well done to the Bulls; losing so many real star players before a big game like that, and going into a match where not a lot of things went their way… just a really gutsy performance.
“It’s a typical South African performance, not giving up. I don’t think a lot of people expected that result – a lot of us hoped for that result.”
“Not that it’s going to make the Irish series easier because they [Leinster] have now played three [recent] games in SA, losing to the Lions and now twice to the Bulls,” Erasmus added.
“They would’ve experienced Loftus, the crowd – I know it wasn’t a full house but they were busy and they were loud – and we’re proud of what Jake did with the team.
“There’s certainly a few players there that showed that maybe we sometimes look and think ‘this system is better or that system is better’, but I don’t think the Bulls system is too far off.”
Photo: @BlueBullsRugby/Twitter
The post Rassie ‘flipping proud’ of Jake’s Bulls appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Src: sarugbymag.co.za
